Policy-based system interface for a real-time autonomous system

ABSTRACT

Embodiments are generally directed to compression in machine learning and deep learning processing. An embodiment of an apparatus for compression of untyped data includes a graphical processing unit (GPU) including a data compression pipeline, the data compression pipeline including a data port coupled with one or more shader cores, wherein the data port is to allow transfer of untyped data without format conversion, and a 3D compression/decompression unit to provide for compression of untyped data to be stored to a memory subsystem and decompression of untyped data from the memory subsystem.

CLAIM TO PRIORITY

This Application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of andpriority to U.S. application Ser. No. 15/859,408, entitled COMPRESSIONIN MACHINE LEARNING AND DEEP LEARNING PROCESSING, by Joydeep Ray, etal., filed Dec. 30, 2017, the entire contents of which are incorporatedherein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments described herein generally relate to the field of electronicdevices and, more particularly, compression in machine learning and deeplearning processing.

BACKGROUND

The compression of data, in which a certain set of data is reduced insize, is commonly performed in computer processing. The data compressioncan reduce the amount of data to be transmitted or stored in memory, andthus provide significant savings in required storage capacity,transmission time, and data handling.

In particular, machine learning and deep learning in graphics processingutilizes large amounts of data, and such processing can greatly benefitfrom data compression.

However, conventional compression systems are limited in their abilityto effectively compress data in certain graphics operations, and inparticular in machine learning and deep learning operations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments described here are illustrated by way of example, and not byway of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in whichlike reference numerals refer to similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a processing system, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a processor having one ormore processor cores, an integrated memory controller, and an integratedgraphics processor;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a graphics processor according to someembodiments;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a graphics processing engine of a graphicsprocessor in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of hardware logic of a graphics processor core500, according to some embodiments;

FIGS. 6A-6B illustrate thread execution logic including an array ofprocessing elements employed in a graphics processor core according tosome embodiments;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating graphics processor instructionformats according to some embodiments;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a graphics processor;

FIG. 9A is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor commandformat according to some embodiments;

FIG. 9B is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor commandsequence according to an embodiment;

FIG. 10 illustrates exemplary graphics software architecture for a dataprocessing system according to some embodiments;

FIG. 11A is a block diagram illustrating an IP core development system1100 that may be used to manufacture an integrated circuit to performoperations according to an embodiment;

FIG. 11B illustrates a cross-section side view of an integrated circuitpackage assembly according to some embodiments;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system on a chipintegrated circuit 1200 that may be fabricated using one or more IPcores, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 13A illustrates an exemplary graphics processor of a system on achip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one or more IPcores, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 13B illustrates an additional exemplary graphics processor of asystem on a chip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one ormore IP cores, according to an embodiment;

FIG. 14A illustrates a graphics core that may be included within agraphics processor according to some embodiments;

FIG. 14B illustrates a highly-parallel general-purpose graphicsprocessing unit suitable for deployment on a multi-chip module accordingto some embodiments;

FIG. 15 illustrates a machine learning software stack, according to anembodiment;

FIG. 16A-16B illustrate layers of exemplary deep neural networks;

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary recurrent neural network;

FIG. 18 illustrates training and deployment of a deep neural network;

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating distributed learning;

FIG. 20 is an illustration of a data compression pipeline in a graphicsprocessing system according to some embodiments;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart to illustrate an algorithm for resolving a memorysurface in place according to some embodiments;

FIG. 22 is an illustration of a system including an intelligent downsampling of data sets according to some embodiments;

FIG. 23 is a flowchart to illustrate a process for intelligent downsampling of data sets according to some embodiments;

FIG. 24 is an illustration of application of compression models with theaid of randomized data and fake labels according to some embodiments;

FIG. 25 is a flowchart to illustrate a process for improving operationof a reduced network according to some embodiments;

FIG. 26 is an illustration of an autonomous system providing policymanagement for addressing unreliable network conditions according tosome embodiments;

FIG. 27 is an illustration of policy-based system interface techniquesfor real-time autonomous systems according to some embodiments;

FIG. 28 is an illustration of containers for a policy-based systeminterface for real-time autonomous system according to some embodiments;

FIG. 29 is a flowchart to illustrate a process for a policy-based systeminterface according to some embodiments;

FIG. 30 is a block diagram illustrating a computer system configured toimplement one or more aspects of the embodiments described herein;

FIGS. 31A-31D illustrate parallel processor components, according to anembodiment;

FIGS. 32A-32B are block diagrams of graphics multiprocessors, accordingto embodiments;

FIGS. 33A-33G illustrate an exemplary architecture in which a pluralityof GPUs are communicatively coupled to a plurality of multi-coreprocessors; and

FIG. 34 illustrates a graphics processing pipeline, according to anembodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments described herein are generally directed to compression inmachine learning and deep learning processing.

In some embodiments, an apparatus, system, or process provides forcompression in the following:

(1) Utilizing 3D compression blocks for compression of untyped graphicsdata;

(2) Evaluating sensor data streams and intelligently down-sampling datasets for learning algorithms;

(3) Compressing models into reduced precision values by re-training withpseudo labels; and

(4) Policy-based system interface techniques for real-time autonomoussystems.

System Overview

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a processing system 100, according to anembodiment. In various embodiments, the system 100 includes one or moreprocessors 102 and one or more graphics processors 108, and may be asingle processor desktop system, a multiprocessor workstation system, ora server system having a large number of processors 102 or processorcores 107. In one embodiment, the system 100 is a processing platformincorporated within a system-on-a-chip (SoC) integrated circuit for usein mobile, handheld, or embedded devices.

In one embodiment the system 100 can include, or be incorporated withina server-based gaming platform, a game console, including a game andmedia console, a mobile gaming console, a handheld game console, or anonline game console. In some embodiments the system 100 is a mobilephone, smart phone, tablet computing device or mobile Internet device.The processing system 100 can also include, couple with, or beintegrated within a wearable device, such as a smart watch wearabledevice, smart eyewear device, augmented reality device, or virtualreality device. In some embodiments, the processing system 100 is atelevision or set top box device having one or more processors 102 and agraphical interface generated by one or more graphics processors 108.

In some embodiments, the one or more processors 102 each include one ormore processor cores 107 to process instructions which, when executed,perform operations for system and user software. In some embodiments,each of the one or more processor cores 107 is configured to process aspecific instruction set 109. In some embodiments, instruction set 109may facilitate Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC), ReducedInstruction Set Computing (RISC), or computing via a Very LongInstruction Word (VLIW). Multiple processor cores 107 may each process adifferent instruction set 109, which may include instructions tofacilitate the emulation of other instruction sets. Processor core 107may also include other processing devices, such a Digital SignalProcessor (DSP).

In some embodiments, the processor 102 includes cache memory 104.Depending on the architecture, the processor 102 can have a singleinternal cache or multiple levels of internal cache. In someembodiments, the cache memory is shared among various components of theprocessor 102. In some embodiments, the processor 102 also uses anexternal cache (e.g., a Level-3 (L3) cache or Last Level Cache (LLC))(not shown), which may be shared among processor cores 107 using knowncache coherency techniques. A register file 106 is additionally includedin processor 102 which may include different types of registers forstoring different types of data (e.g., integer registers, floating pointregisters, status registers, and an instruction pointer register). Someregisters may be general-purpose registers, while other registers may bespecific to the design of the processor 102.

In some embodiments, one or more processor(s) 102 are coupled with oneor more interface bus(es) 110 to transmit communication signals such asaddress, data, or control signals between processor 102 and othercomponents in the system 100. The interface bus 110, in one embodiment,can be a processor bus, such as a version of the Direct Media Interface(DMI) bus. However, processor buses are not limited to the DMI bus, andmay include one or more Peripheral Component Interconnect buses (e.g.,PCI, PCI Express), memory buses, or other types of interface buses. Inone embodiment the processor(s) 102 include an integrated memorycontroller 116 and a platform controller hub 130. The memory controller116 facilitates communication between a memory device and othercomponents of the system 100, while the platform controller hub (PCH)130 provides connections to I/O devices via a local I/O bus.

The memory device 120 can be a dynamic random access memory (DRAM)device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, flash memorydevice, phase-change memory device, or some other memory device havingsuitable performance to serve as process memory. In one embodiment thememory device 120 can operate as system memory for the system 100, tostore data 122 and instructions 121 for use when the one or moreprocessors 102 executes an application or process. Memory controller 116also couples with an optional external graphics processor 112, which maycommunicate with the one or more graphics processors 108 in processors102 to perform graphics and media operations. In some embodiments adisplay device 111 can connect to the processor(s) 102. The displaydevice 111 can be one or more of an internal display device, as in amobile electronic device or a laptop device or an external displaydevice attached via a display interface (e.g., DisplayPort, etc.). Inone embodiment the display device 111 can be a head mounted display(HMD) such as a stereoscopic display device for use in virtual reality(VR) applications or augmented reality (AR) applications.

In some embodiments the platform controller hub 130 enables peripheralsto connect to memory device 120 and processor 102 via a high-speed I/Obus. The I/O peripherals include, but are not limited to, an audiocontroller 146, a network controller 134, a firmware interface 128, awireless transceiver 126, touch sensors 125, a data storage device 124(e.g., hard disk drive, flash memory, etc.). The data storage device 124can connect via a storage interface (e.g., SATA) or via a peripheralbus, such as a Peripheral Component Interconnect bus (e.g., PCI, PCIExpress). The touch sensors 125 can include touch screen sensors,pressure sensors, or fingerprint sensors. The wireless transceiver 126can be a Wi-Fi transceiver, a Bluetooth transceiver, or a mobile networktransceiver such as a 3G, 4G, or Long Term Evolution (LTE) transceiver.The firmware interface 128 enables communication with system firmware,and can be, for example, a unified extensible firmware interface (UEFI).The network controller 134 can enable a network connection to a wirednetwork. In some embodiments, a high-performance network controller (notshown) couples with the interface bus 110. The audio controller 146, inone embodiment, is a multi-channel high definition audio controller. Inone embodiment the system 100 includes an optional legacy I/O controller140 for coupling legacy (e.g., Personal System 2 (PS/2)) devices to thesystem. The platform controller hub 130 can also connect to one or moreUniversal Serial Bus (USB) controllers 142 connect input devices, suchas keyboard and mouse 143 combinations, a camera 144, or other USB inputdevices.

It will be appreciated that the system 100 shown is exemplary and notlimiting, as other types of data processing systems that are differentlyconfigured may also be used. For example, an instance of the memorycontroller 116 and platform controller hub 130 may be integrated into adiscreet external graphics processor, such as the external graphicsprocessor 112. In one embodiment the platform controller hub 130 and/ormemory controller 160 may be external to the one or more processor(s)102. For example, the system 100 can include an external memorycontroller 116 and platform controller hub 130, which may be configuredas a memory controller hub and peripheral controller hub within a systemchipset that is in communication with the processor(s) 102.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a processor 200 having oneor more processor cores 202A-202N, an integrated memory controller 214,and an integrated graphics processor 208. Those elements of FIG. 2having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of anyother figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar tothat described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such. Processor200 can include additional cores up to and including additional core202N represented by the dashed lined boxes. Each of processor cores202A-202N includes one or more internal cache units 204A-204N. In someembodiments each processor core also has access to one or more sharedcached units 206.

The internal cache units 204A-204N and shared cache units 206 representa cache memory hierarchy within the processor 200. The cache memoryhierarchy may include at least one level of instruction and data cachewithin each processor core and one or more levels of shared mid-levelcache, such as a Level 2 (L2), Level 3 (L3), Level 4 (L4), or otherlevels of cache, where the highest level of cache before external memoryis classified as the LLC. In some embodiments, cache coherency logicmaintains coherency between the various cache units 206 and 204A-204N.

In some embodiments, processor 200 may also include a set of one or morebus controller units 216 and a system agent core 210. The one or morebus controller units 216 manage a set of peripheral buses, such as oneor more PCI or PCI express buses. System agent core 210 providesmanagement functionality for the various processor components. In someembodiments, system agent core 210 includes one or more integratedmemory controllers 214 to manage access to various external memorydevices (not shown).

In some embodiments, one or more of the processor cores 202A-202Ninclude support for simultaneous multi-threading. In such embodiment,the system agent core 210 includes components for coordinating andoperating cores 202A-202N during multi-threaded processing. System agentcore 210 may additionally include a power control unit (PCU), whichincludes logic and components to regulate the power state of processorcores 202A-202N and graphics processor 208.

In some embodiments, processor 200 additionally includes graphicsprocessor 208 to execute graphics processing operations. In someembodiments, the graphics processor 208 couples with the set of sharedcache units 206, and the system agent core 210, including the one ormore integrated memory controllers 214. In some embodiments, the systemagent core 210 also includes a display controller 211 to drive graphicsprocessor output to one or more coupled displays. In some embodiments,display controller 211 may also be a separate module coupled with thegraphics processor via at least one interconnect, or may be integratedwithin the graphics processor 208.

In some embodiments, a ring based interconnect unit 212 is used tocouple the internal components of the processor 200. However, analternative interconnect unit may be used, such as a point-to-pointinterconnect, a switched interconnect, or other techniques, includingtechniques well known in the art. In some embodiments, graphicsprocessor 208 couples with the ring interconnect 212 via an I/O link213.

The exemplary I/O link 213 represents at least one of multiple varietiesof I/O interconnects, including an on package I/O interconnect whichfacilitates communication between various processor components and ahigh-performance embedded memory module 218, such as an eDRAM module. Insome embodiments, each of the processor cores 202A-202N and graphicsprocessor 208 use embedded memory modules 218 as a shared Last LevelCache.

In some embodiments, processor cores 202A-202N are homogenous coresexecuting the same instruction set architecture. In another embodiment,processor cores 202A-202N are heterogeneous in terms of instruction setarchitecture (ISA), where one or more of processor cores 202A-202Nexecute a first instruction set, while at least one of the other coresexecutes a subset of the first instruction set or a differentinstruction set. In one embodiment processor cores 202A-202N areheterogeneous in terms of microarchitecture, where one or more coreshaving a relatively higher power consumption couple with one or morepower cores having a lower power consumption. Additionally, processor200 can be implemented on one or more chips or as an SoC integratedcircuit having the illustrated components, in addition to othercomponents.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a graphics processor 300, which may be adiscrete graphics processing unit, or may be a graphics processorintegrated with a plurality of processing cores. In some embodiments,the graphics processor communicates via a memory mapped I/O interface toregisters on the graphics processor and with commands placed into theprocessor memory. In some embodiments, graphics processor 300 includes amemory interface 314 to access memory. Memory interface 314 can be aninterface to local memory, one or more internal caches, one or moreshared external caches, and/or to system memory.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 300 also includes a displaycontroller 302 to drive display output data to a display device 320.Display controller 302 includes hardware for one or more overlay planesfor the display and composition of multiple layers of video or userinterface elements. The display device 320 can be an internal orexternal display device. In one embodiment the display device 320 is ahead mounted display device, such as a virtual reality (VR) displaydevice or an augmented reality (AR) display device. In some embodiments,graphics processor 300 includes a video codec engine 306 to encode,decode, or transcode media to, from, or between one or more mediaencoding formats, including, but not limited to Moving Picture ExpertsGroup (MPEG) formats such as MPEG-2, Advanced Video Coding (AVC) formatssuch as H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, as well as the Society of Motion Picture &Television Engineers (SMPTE) 421M/VC-1, and Joint Photographic ExpertsGroup (JPEG) formats such as JPEG, and Motion JPEG (MJPEG) formats.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 300 includes a block imagetransfer (BLIT) engine 304 to perform two-dimensional (2D) rasterizeroperations including, for example, bit-boundary block transfers.However, in one embodiment, 2D graphics operations are performed usingone or more components of graphics processing engine (GPE) 310. In someembodiments, GPE 310 is a compute engine for performing graphicsoperations, including three-dimensional (3D) graphics operations andmedia operations.

In some embodiments, GPE 310 includes a 3D pipeline 312 for performing3D operations, such as rendering three-dimensional images and scenesusing processing functions that act upon 3D primitive shapes (e.g.,rectangle, triangle, etc.). The 3D pipeline 312 includes programmableand fixed function elements that perform various tasks within theelement and/or spawn execution threads to a 3D/Media sub-system 315.While 3D pipeline 312 can be used to perform media operations, anembodiment of GPE 310 also includes a media pipeline 316 that isspecifically used to perform media operations, such as videopost-processing and image enhancement.

In some embodiments, media pipeline 316 includes fixed function orprogrammable logic units to perform one or more specialized mediaoperations, such as video decode acceleration, video de-interlacing, andvideo encode acceleration in place of, or on behalf of video codecengine 306. In some embodiments, media pipeline 316 additionallyincludes a thread spawning unit to spawn threads for execution on3D/Media sub-system 315. The spawned threads perform computations forthe media operations on one or more graphics execution units included in3D/Media sub-system 315.

In some embodiments, 3D/Media subsystem 315 includes logic for executingthreads spawned by 3D pipeline 312 and media pipeline 316. In oneembodiment, the pipelines send thread execution requests to 3D/Mediasubsystem 315, which includes thread dispatch logic for arbitrating anddispatching the various requests to available thread executionresources. The execution resources include an array of graphicsexecution units to process the 3D and media threads. In someembodiments, 3D/Media subsystem 315 includes one or more internal cachesfor thread instructions and data. In some embodiments, the subsystemalso includes shared memory, including registers and addressable memory,to share data between threads and to store output data.

Graphics Processing Engine

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a graphics processing engine 410 of agraphics processor in accordance with some embodiments. In oneembodiment, the graphics processing engine (GPE) 410 is a version of theGPE 310 shown in FIG. 3 . Elements of FIG. 4 having the same referencenumbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure herein canoperate or function in any manner similar to that described elsewhereherein, but are not limited to such. For example, the 3D pipeline 312and media pipeline 316 of FIG. 3 are illustrated. The media pipeline 316is optional in some embodiments of the GPE 410 and may not be explicitlyincluded within the GPE 410. For example and in at least one embodiment,a separate media and/or image processor is coupled to the GPE 410.

In some embodiments, GPE 410 couples with or includes a command streamer403, which provides a command stream to the 3D pipeline 312 and/or mediapipelines 316. In some embodiments, command streamer 403 is coupled withmemory, which can be system memory, or one or more of internal cachememory and shared cache memory. In some embodiments, command streamer403 receives commands from the memory and sends the commands to 3Dpipeline 312 and/or media pipeline 316. The commands are directivesfetched from a ring buffer, which stores commands for the 3D pipeline312 and media pipeline 316. In one embodiment, the ring buffer canadditionally include batch command buffers storing batches of multiplecommands. The commands for the 3D pipeline 312 can also includereferences to data stored in memory, such as but not limited to vertexand geometry data for the 3D pipeline 312 and/or image data and memoryobjects for the media pipeline 316. The 3D pipeline 312 and mediapipeline 316 process the commands and data by performing operations vialogic within the respective pipelines or by dispatching one or moreexecution threads to a graphics core array 414. In one embodiment thegraphics core array 414 include one or more blocks of graphics cores(e.g., graphics core(s) 415A, graphics core(s) 415B), each blockincluding one or more graphics cores. Each graphics core includes a setof graphics execution resources that includes general-purpose andgraphics specific execution logic to perform graphics and computeoperations, as well as fixed function texture processing and/or machinelearning and artificial intelligence acceleration logic.

In various embodiments the 3D pipeline 312 includes fixed function andprogrammable logic to process one or more shader programs, such asvertex shaders, geometry shaders, pixel shaders, fragment shaders,compute shaders, or other shader programs, by processing theinstructions and dispatching execution threads to the graphics corearray 414. The graphics core array 414 provides a unified block ofexecution resources for use in processing these shader programs.Multi-purpose execution logic (e.g., execution units) within thegraphics core(s) 415A-414B of the graphic core array 414 includessupport for various 3D API shader languages and can execute multiplesimultaneous execution threads associated with multiple shaders.

In some embodiments the graphics core array 414 also includes executionlogic to perform media functions, such as video and/or image processing.In one embodiment, the execution units additionally includegeneral-purpose logic that is programmable to perform parallelgeneral-purpose computational operations, in addition to graphicsprocessing operations. The general-purpose logic can perform processingoperations in parallel or in conjunction with general-purpose logicwithin the processor core(s) 107 of FIG. 1 or core 202A-202N as in FIG.2 .

Output data generated by threads executing on the graphics core array414 can output data to memory in a unified return buffer (URB) 418. TheURB 418 can store data for multiple threads. In some embodiments the URB418 may be used to send data between different threads executing on thegraphics core array 414. In some embodiments the URB 418 mayadditionally be used for synchronization between threads on the graphicscore array and fixed function logic within the shared function logic420.

In some embodiments, graphics core array 414 is scalable, such that thearray includes a variable number of graphics cores, each having avariable number of execution units based on the target power andperformance level of GPE 410. In one embodiment the execution resourcesare dynamically scalable, such that execution resources may be enabledor disabled as needed.

The graphics core array 414 couples with shared function logic 420 thatincludes multiple resources that are shared between the graphics coresin the graphics core array. The shared functions within the sharedfunction logic 420 are hardware logic units that provide specializedsupplemental functionality to the graphics core array 414. In variousembodiments, shared function logic 420 includes but is not limited tosampler 421, math 422, and inter-thread communication (ITC) 423 logic.Additionally, some embodiments implement one or more cache(s) 425 withinthe shared function logic 420.

A shared function is implemented where the demand for a givenspecialized function is insufficient for inclusion within the graphicscore array 414. Instead a single instantiation of that specializedfunction is implemented as a stand-alone entity in the shared functionlogic 420 and shared among the execution resources within the graphicscore array 414. The precise set of functions that are shared between thegraphics core array 414 and included within the graphics core array 414varies across embodiments. In some embodiments, specific sharedfunctions within the shared function logic 420 that are used extensivelyby the graphics core array 414 may be included within shared functionlogic 416 within the graphics core array 414. In various embodiments,the shared function logic 416 within the graphics core array 414 caninclude some or all logic within the shared function logic 420. In oneembodiment, all logic elements within the shared function logic 420 maybe duplicated within the shared function logic 416 of the graphics corearray 414. In one embodiment the shared function logic 420 is excludedin favor of the shared function logic 416 within the graphics core array414.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of hardware logic of a graphics processor core500, according to some embodiments described herein. Elements of FIG. 5having the same reference numbers (or names) as the elements of anyother figure herein can operate or function in any manner similar tothat described elsewhere herein, but are not limited to such. Theillustrated graphics processor core 500, in some embodiments, isincluded within the graphics core array 414 of FIG. 4 . The graphicsprocessor core 500, sometimes referred to as a core slice, can be one ormultiple graphics cores within a modular graphics processor. Thegraphics processor core 500 is exemplary of one graphics core slice, anda graphics processor as described herein may include multiple graphicscore slices based on target power and performance envelopes. Eachgraphics core 500 can include a fixed function block 530 coupled withmultiple sub-cores 501A-501F, also referred to as sub-slices, thatinclude modular blocks of general-purpose and fixed function logic.

In some embodiments the fixed function block 530 includes ageometry/fixed function pipeline 536 that can be shared by all sub-coresin the graphics processor 500, for example, in lower performance and/orlower power graphics processor implementations. In various embodiments,the geometry/fixed function pipeline 536 includes a 3D fixed functionpipeline (e.g., 3D pipeline 312 as in FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 ) a videofront-end unit, a thread spawner and thread dispatcher, and a unifiedreturn buffer manager, which manages unified return buffers, such as theunified return buffer 418 of FIG. 4 .

In one embodiment the fixed function block 530 also includes a graphicsSoC interface 537, a graphics microcontroller 538, and a media pipeline539. The graphics SoC interface 537 provides an interface between thegraphics core 500 and other processor cores within a system on a chipintegrated circuit. The graphics microcontroller 538 is a programmablesub-processor that is configurable to manage various functions of thegraphics processor 500, including thread dispatch, scheduling, andpre-emption. The media pipeline 539 (e.g., media pipeline 316 of FIG. 3and FIG. 4 ) includes logic to facilitate the decoding, encoding,pre-processing, and/or post-processing of multimedia data, includingimage and video data. The media pipeline 539 implement media operationsvia requests to compute or sampling logic within the sub-cores 501-501F.

In one embodiment the SoC interface 537 enables the graphics core 500 tocommunicate with general-purpose application processor cores (e.g.,CPUs) and/or other components within an SoC, including memory hierarchyelements such as a shared last level cache memory, the system RAM,and/or embedded on-chip or on-package DRAM. The SoC interface 537 canalso enable communication with fixed function devices within the SoC,such as camera imaging pipelines, and enables the use of and/orimplements global memory atomics that may be shared between the graphicscore 500 and CPUs within the SoC. The SoC interface 537 can alsoimplement power management controls for the graphics core 500 and enablean interface between a clock domain of the graphic core 500 and otherclock domains within the SoC. In one embodiment the SoC interface 537enables receipt of command buffers from a command streamer and globalthread dispatcher that are configured to provide commands andinstructions to each of one or more graphics cores within a graphicsprocessor. The commands and instructions can be dispatched to the mediapipeline 539, when media operations are to be performed, or a geometryand fixed function pipeline (e.g., geometry and fixed function pipeline536, geometry and fixed function pipeline 514) when graphics processingoperations are to be performed.

The graphics microcontroller 538 can be configured to perform variousscheduling and management tasks for the graphics core 500. In oneembodiment the graphics microcontroller 538 can perform graphics and/orcompute workload scheduling on the various graphics parallel engineswithin execution unit (EU) arrays 502A-502F, 504A-504F within thesub-cores 501A-501F. In this scheduling model, host software executingon a CPU core of an SoC including the graphics core 500 can submitworkloads one of multiple graphic processor doorbells, which invokes ascheduling operation on the appropriate graphics engine. Schedulingoperations include determining which workload to run next, submitting aworkload to a command streamer, pre-empting existing workloads runningon an engine, monitoring progress of a workload, and notifying hostsoftware when a workload is complete. In one embodiment the graphicsmicrocontroller 538 can also facilitate low-power or idle states for thegraphics core 500, providing the graphics core 500 with the ability tosave and restore registers within the graphics core 500 across low-powerstate transitions independently from the operating system and/orgraphics driver software on the system.

The graphics core 500 may have greater than or fewer than theillustrated sub-cores 501A-501F, up to N modular sub-cores. For each setof N sub-cores, the graphics core 500 can also include shared functionlogic 510, shared and/or cache memory 512, a geometry/fixed functionpipeline 514, as well as additional fixed function logic 516 toaccelerate various graphics and compute processing operations. Theshared function logic 510 can include logic units associated with theshared function logic 420 of FIG. 4 (e.g., sampler, math, and/orinter-thread communication logic) that can be shared by each N sub-coreswithin the graphics core 500. The shared and/or cache memory 512 can bea last-level cache for the set of N sub-cores 501A-501F within thegraphics core 500, and can also serve as shared memory that isaccessible by multiple sub-cores. The geometry/fixed function pipeline514 can be included instead of the geometry/fixed function pipeline 536within the fixed function block 530 and can include the same or similarlogic units.

In one embodiment the graphics core 500 includes additional fixedfunction logic 516 that can include various fixed function accelerationlogic for use by the graphics core 500. In one embodiment the additionalfixed function logic 516 includes an additional geometry pipeline foruse in position only shading. In position-only shading, two geometrypipelines exist, the full geometry pipeline within the geometry/fixedfunction pipeline 516, 536, and a cull pipeline, which is an additionalgeometry pipeline which may be included within the additional fixedfunction logic 516. In one embodiment the cull pipeline is a trimmeddown version of the full geometry pipeline. The full pipeline and thecull pipeline can execute different instances of the same application,each instance having a separate context. Position only shading can hidelong cull runs of discarded triangles, enabling shading to be completedearlier in some instances. For example and in one embodiment the cullpipeline logic within the additional fixed function logic 516 canexecute position shaders in parallel with the main application andgenerally generates critical results faster than the full pipeline, asthe cull pipeline fetches and shades only the position attribute of thevertices, without performing rasterization and rendering of the pixelsto the frame buffer. The cull pipeline can use the generated criticalresults to compute visibility information for all the triangles withoutregard to whether those triangles are culled. The full pipeline (whichin this instance may be referred to as a replay pipeline) can consumethe visibility information to skip the culled triangles to shade onlythe visible triangles that are finally passed to the rasterizationphase.

In one embodiment the additional fixed function logic 516 can alsoinclude machine-learning acceleration logic, such as fixed functionmatrix multiplication logic, for implementations including optimizationsfor machine learning training or inferencing.

Within each graphics sub-core 501A-501F includes a set of executionresources that may be used to perform graphics, media, and computeoperations in response to requests by graphics pipeline, media pipeline,or shader programs. The graphics sub-cores 501A-501F include multiple EUarrays 502A-502F, 504A-504F, thread dispatch and inter-threadcommunication (TD/IC) logic 503A-503F, a 3D (e.g., texture) sampler505A-505F, a media sampler 506A-506F, a shader processor 507A-507F, andshared local memory (SLM) 508A-508F. The EU arrays 502A-502F, 504A-504Feach include multiple execution units, which are general-purposegraphics processing units capable of performing floating-point andinteger/fixed-point logic operations in service of a graphics, media, orcompute operation, including graphics, media, or compute shaderprograms. The TD/IC logic 503A-503F performs local thread dispatch andthread control operations for the execution units within a sub-core andfacilitate communication between threads executing on the executionunits of the sub-core. The 3D sampler 505A-505F can read texture orother 3D graphics related data into memory. The 3D sampler can readtexture data differently based on a configured sample state and thetexture format associated with a given texture. The media sampler506A-506F can perform similar read operations based on the type andformat associated with media data. In one embodiment, each graphicssub-core 501A-501F can alternately include a unified 3D and mediasampler. Threads executing on the execution units within each of thesub-cores 501A-501F can make use of shared local memory 508A-508F withineach sub-core, to enable threads executing within a thread group toexecute using a common pool of on-chip memory.

Execution Units

FIGS. 6A-6B illustrate thread execution logic 600 including an array ofprocessing elements employed in a graphics processor core according toembodiments described herein. Elements of FIGS. 6A-6B having the samereference numbers (or names) as the elements of any other figure hereincan operate or function in any manner similar to that describedelsewhere herein, but are not limited to such. FIG. 6A illustrates anoverview of thread execution logic 600, which can include a variant ofthe hardware logic illustrated with each sub-core 501A-501F of FIG. 5 .FIG. 6B illustrates exemplary internal details of an execution unit.

As illustrated in FIG. 6A, in some embodiments thread execution logic600 includes a shader processor 602, a thread dispatcher 604,instruction cache 606, a scalable execution unit array including aplurality of execution units 608A-608N, a sampler 610, a data cache 612,and a data port 614. In one embodiment the scalable execution unit arraycan dynamically scale by enabling or disabling one or more executionunits (e.g., any of execution unit 608A, 608B, 608C, 608D, through608N-1 and 608N) based on the computational requirements of a workload.In one embodiment the included components are interconnected via aninterconnect fabric that links to each of the components. In someembodiments, thread execution logic 600 includes one or more connectionsto memory, such as system memory or cache memory, through one or more ofinstruction cache 606, data port 614, sampler 610, and execution units608A-608N. In some embodiments, each execution unit (e.g. 608A) is astand-alone programmable general-purpose computational unit that iscapable of executing multiple simultaneous hardware threads whileprocessing multiple data elements in parallel for each thread. Invarious embodiments, the array of execution units 608A-608N is scalableto include any number individual execution units.

In some embodiments, the execution units 608A-608N are primarily used toexecute shader programs. A shader processor 602 can process the variousshader programs and dispatch execution threads associated with theshader programs via a thread dispatcher 604. In one embodiment thethread dispatcher includes logic to arbitrate thread initiation requestsfrom the graphics and media pipelines and instantiate the requestedthreads on one or more execution unit in the execution units 608A-608N.For example, a geometry pipeline can dispatch vertex, tessellation, orgeometry shaders to the thread execution logic for processing. In someembodiments, thread dispatcher 604 can also process runtime threadspawning requests from the executing shader programs.

In some embodiments, the execution units 608A-608N support aninstruction set that includes native support for many standard 3Dgraphics shader instructions, such that shader programs from graphicslibraries (e.g., Direct 3D and OpenGL) are executed with a minimaltranslation. The execution units support vertex and geometry processing(e.g., vertex programs, geometry programs, vertex shaders), pixelprocessing (e.g., pixel shaders, fragment shaders) and general-purposeprocessing (e.g., compute and media shaders). Each of the executionunits 608A-608N is capable of multi-issue single instruction multipledata (SIMD) execution and multi-threaded operation enables an efficientexecution environment in the face of higher latency memory accesses.Each hardware thread within each execution unit has a dedicatedhigh-bandwidth register file and associated independent thread-state.Execution is multi-issue per clock to pipelines capable of integer,single and double precision floating point operations, SIMD branchcapability, logical operations, transcendental operations, and othermiscellaneous operations. While waiting for data from memory or one ofthe shared functions, dependency logic within the execution units608A-608N causes a waiting thread to sleep until the requested data hasbeen returned. While the waiting thread is sleeping, hardware resourcesmay be devoted to processing other threads. For example, during a delayassociated with a vertex shader operation, an execution unit can performoperations for a pixel shader, fragment shader, or another type ofshader program, including a different vertex shader.

Each execution unit in execution units 608A-608N operates on arrays ofdata elements. The number of data elements is the “execution size,” orthe number of channels for the instruction. An execution channel is alogical unit of execution for data element access, masking, and flowcontrol within instructions. The number of channels may be independentof the number of physical Arithmetic Logic Units (ALUs) or FloatingPoint Units (FPUs) for a particular graphics processor. In someembodiments, execution units 608A-608N support integer andfloating-point data types.

The execution unit instruction set includes SIMD instructions. Thevarious data elements can be stored as a packed data type in a registerand the execution unit will process the various elements based on thedata size of the elements. For example, when operating on a 256-bit widevector, the 256 bits of the vector are stored in a register and theexecution unit operates on the vector as four separate 64-bit packeddata elements (Quad-Word (QW) size data elements), eight separate 32-bitpacked data elements (Double Word (DW) size data elements), sixteenseparate 16-bit packed data elements (Word (W) size data elements), orthirty-two separate 8-bit data elements (byte (B) size data elements).However, different vector widths and register sizes are possible.

In one embodiment one or more execution units can be combined into afused execution unit 609A-609N having thread control logic (607A-607N)that is common to the fused EUs. Multiple EUs can be fused into an EUgroup. Each EU in the fused EU group can be configured to execute aseparate SIMD hardware thread. The number of EUs in a fused EU group canvary according to embodiments. Additionally, various SIMD widths can beperformed per-EU, including but not limited to SIMD8, SIMD16, andSIMD32. Each fused graphics execution unit 609A-609N includes at leasttwo execution units. For example, fused execution unit 609A includes afirst EU 608A, second EU 608B, and thread control logic 607A that iscommon to the first EU 608A and the second EU 608B. The thread controllogic 607A controls threads executed on the fused graphics executionunit 609A, allowing each EU within the fused execution units 609A-609Nto execute using a common instruction pointer register.

One or more internal instruction caches (e.g., 606) are included in thethread execution logic 600 to cache thread instructions for theexecution units. In some embodiments, one or more data caches (e.g.,612) are included to cache thread data during thread execution. In someembodiments, a sampler 610 is included to provide texture sampling for3D operations and media sampling for media operations. In someembodiments, sampler 610 includes specialized texture or media samplingfunctionality to process texture or media data during the samplingprocess before providing the sampled data to an execution unit.

During execution, the graphics and media pipelines send threadinitiation requests to thread execution logic 600 via thread spawningand dispatch logic. Once a group of geometric objects has been processedand rasterized into pixel data, pixel processor logic (e.g., pixelshader logic, fragment shader logic, etc.) within the shader processor602 is invoked to further compute output information and cause resultsto be written to output surfaces (e.g., color buffers, depth buffers,stencil buffers, etc.). In some embodiments, a pixel shader or fragmentshader calculates the values of the various vertex attributes that areto be interpolated across the rasterized object. In some embodiments,pixel processor logic within the shader processor 602 then executes anapplication programming interface (API)-supplied pixel or fragmentshader program. To execute the shader program, the shader processor 602dispatches threads to an execution unit (e.g., 608A) via threaddispatcher 604. In some embodiments, shader processor 602 uses texturesampling logic in the sampler 610 to access texture data in texture mapsstored in memory. Arithmetic operations on the texture data and theinput geometry data compute pixel color data for each geometricfragment, or discards one or more pixels from further processing.

In some embodiments, the data port 614 provides a memory accessmechanism for the thread execution logic 600 to output processed data tomemory for further processing on a graphics processor output pipeline.In some embodiments, the data port 614 includes or couples to one ormore cache memories (e.g., data cache 612) to cache data for memoryaccess via the data port.

As illustrated in FIG. 6B, a graphics execution unit 608 can include aninstruction fetch unit 637, a general register file array (GRF) 624, anarchitectural register file array (ARF) 626, a thread arbiter 622, asend unit 630, a branch unit 632, a set of SIMD floating point units(FPUs) 634, and in one embodiment a set of dedicated integer SIMD ALUs635. The GRF 624 and ARF 626 includes the set of general register filesand architecture register files associated with each simultaneoushardware thread that may be active in the graphics execution unit 608.In one embodiment, per thread architectural state is maintained in theARF 626, while data used during thread execution is stored in the GRF624. The execution state of each thread, including the instructionpointers for each thread, can be held in thread-specific registers inthe ARF 626.

In one embodiment the graphics execution unit 608 has an architecturethat is a combination of Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT) andfine-grained Interleaved Multi-Threading (IMT). The architecture has amodular configuration that can be fine-tuned at design time based on atarget number of simultaneous threads and number of registers perexecution unit, where execution unit resources are divided across logicused to execute multiple simultaneous threads.

In one embodiment, the graphics execution unit 608 can co-issue multipleinstructions, which may each be different instructions. The threadarbiter 622 of the graphics execution unit thread 608 can dispatch theinstructions to one of the send unit 630, branch unit 642, or SIMDFPU(s) 634 for execution. Each execution thread can access 128general-purpose registers within the GRF 624, where each register canstore 32 bytes, accessible as a SIMD 8-element vector of 32-bit dataelements. In one embodiment, each execution unit thread has access to 4Kbytes within the GRF 624, although embodiments are not so limited, andgreater or fewer register resources may be provided in otherembodiments. In one embodiment up to seven threads can executesimultaneously, although the number of threads per execution unit canalso vary according to embodiments. In an embodiment in which seventhreads may access 4 Kbytes, the GRF 624 can store a total of 28 Kbytes.Flexible addressing modes can permit registers to be addressed togetherto build effectively wider registers or to represent strided rectangularblock data structures.

In one embodiment, memory operations, sampler operations, and otherlonger-latency system communications are dispatched via “send”instructions that are executed by the message passing send unit 630. Inone embodiment, branch instructions are dispatched to a dedicated branchunit 632 to facilitate SIMD divergence and eventual convergence.

In one embodiment the graphics execution unit 608 includes one or moreSIMD floating point units (FPU(s)) 634 to perform floating-pointoperations. In one embodiment, the FPU(s) 634 also support integercomputation. In one embodiment the FPU(s) 634 can SIMD execute up to Mnumber of 32-bit floating-point (or integer) operations, or SIMD executeup to 2M 16-bit integer or 16-bit floating-point operations. In oneembodiment, at least one of the FPU(s) provides extended math capabilityto support high-throughput transcendental math functions and doubleprecision 64-bit floating-point. In some embodiments, a set of 8-bitinteger SIMD ALUs 635 are also present, and may be specificallyoptimized to perform operations associated with machine learningcomputations.

In one embodiment, arrays of multiple instances of the graphicsexecution unit 608 can be instantiated in a graphics sub-core grouping(e.g., a sub-slice). For scalability, product architects can choose theexact number of execution units per sub-core grouping. In one embodimentthe execution unit 608 can execute instructions across a plurality ofexecution channels. In a further embodiment, each thread executed on thegraphics execution unit 608 is executed on a different channel.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating graphics processor instructionformats 700 according to some embodiments. In one or more embodiment,the graphics processor execution units support an instruction set havinginstructions in multiple formats. The solid lined boxes illustrate thecomponents that are generally included in an execution unit instruction,while the dashed lines include components that are optional or that areonly included in a sub-set of the instructions. In some embodiments,instruction format 700 described and illustrated are macro-instructions,in that they are instructions supplied to the execution unit, as opposedto micro-operations resulting from instruction decode once theinstruction is processed.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor execution units nativelysupport instructions in a 128-bit instruction format 710. A 64-bitcompacted instruction format 730 is available for some instructionsbased on the selected instruction, instruction options, and number ofoperands. The native 128-bit instruction format 710 provides access toall instruction options, while some options and operations arerestricted in the 64-bit format 730. The native instructions availablein the 64-bit format 730 vary by embodiment. In some embodiments, theinstruction is compacted in part using a set of index values in an indexfield 713. The execution unit hardware references a set of compactiontables based on the index values and uses the compaction table outputsto reconstruct a native instruction in the 128-bit instruction format710.

For each format, instruction opcode 712 defines the operation that theexecution unit is to perform. The execution units execute eachinstruction in parallel across the multiple data elements of eachoperand. For example, in response to an add instruction the executionunit performs a simultaneous add operation across each color channelrepresenting a texture element or picture element. By default, theexecution unit performs each instruction across all data channels of theoperands. In some embodiments, instruction control field 714 enablescontrol over certain execution options, such as channels selection(e.g., predication) and data channel order (e.g., swizzle). Forinstructions in the 128-bit instruction format 710 an exec-size field716 limits the number of data channels that will be executed inparallel. In some embodiments, exec-size field 716 is not available foruse in the 64-bit compact instruction format 730.

Some execution unit instructions have up to three operands including twosource operands, src0 720, src1 722, and one destination 718. In someembodiments, the execution units support dual destination instructions,where one of the destinations is implied. Data manipulation instructionscan have a third source operand (e.g., SRC2 724), where the instructionopcode 712 determines the number of source operands. An instruction'slast source operand can be an immediate (e.g., hard-coded) value passedwith the instruction.

In some embodiments, the 128-bit instruction format 710 includes anaccess/address mode field 726 specifying, for example, whether directregister addressing mode or indirect register addressing mode is used.When direct register addressing mode is used, the register address ofone or more operands is directly provided by bits in the instruction.

In some embodiments, the 128-bit instruction format 710 includes anaccess/address mode field 726, which specifies an address mode and/or anaccess mode for the instruction. In one embodiment the access mode isused to define a data access alignment for the instruction. Someembodiments support access modes including a 16-byte aligned access modeand a 1-byte aligned access mode, where the byte alignment of the accessmode determines the access alignment of the instruction operands. Forexample, when in a first mode, the instruction may use byte-alignedaddressing for source and destination operands and when in a secondmode, the instruction may use 16-byte-aligned addressing for all sourceand destination operands.

In one embodiment, the address mode portion of the access/address modefield 726 determines whether the instruction is to use direct orindirect addressing. When direct register addressing mode is used bitsin the instruction directly provide the register address of one or moreoperands. When indirect register addressing mode is used, the registeraddress of one or more operands may be computed based on an addressregister value and an address immediate field in the instruction.

In some embodiments instructions are grouped based on opcode 712bit-fields to simplify Opcode decode 740. For an 8-bit opcode, bits 4,5, and 6 allow the execution unit to determine the type of opcode. Theprecise opcode grouping shown is merely an example. In some embodiments,a move and logic opcode group 742 includes data movement and logicinstructions (e.g., move (mov), compare (cmp)). In some embodiments,move and logic group 742 shares the five most significant bits (MSB),where move (mov) instructions are in the form of 0000xxxxb and logicinstructions are in the form of 0001xxxxb. A flow control instructiongroup 744 (e.g., call, jump (jmp)) includes instructions in the form of0010xxxxb (e.g., 0x20). A miscellaneous instruction group 746 includes amix of instructions, including synchronization instructions (e.g., wait,send) in the form of 0011xxxxb (e.g., 0x30). A parallel math instructiongroup 748 includes component-wise arithmetic instructions (e.g., add,multiply (mul)) in the form of 0100xxxxb (e.g., 0x40). The parallel mathgroup 748 performs the arithmetic operations in parallel across datachannels. The vector math group 750 includes arithmetic instructions(e.g., dp4) in the form of 0101xxxxb (e.g., 0x50). The vector math groupperforms arithmetic such as dot product calculations on vector operands.

Graphics Pipeline

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of another embodiment of a graphics processor800. Elements of FIG. 8 having the same reference numbers (or names) asthe elements of any other figure herein can operate or function in anymanner similar to that described elsewhere herein, but are not limitedto such.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 800 includes a geometry pipeline820, a media pipeline 830, a display engine 840, thread execution logic850, and a render output pipeline 870. In some embodiments, graphicsprocessor 800 is a graphics processor within a multi-core processingsystem that includes one or more general-purpose processing cores. Thegraphics processor is controlled by register writes to one or morecontrol registers (not shown) or via commands issued to graphicsprocessor 800 via a ring interconnect 802. In some embodiments, ringinterconnect 802 couples graphics processor 800 to other processingcomponents, such as other graphics processors or general-purposeprocessors. Commands from ring interconnect 802 are interpreted by acommand streamer 803, which supplies instructions to individualcomponents of the geometry pipeline 820 or the media pipeline 830.

In some embodiments, command streamer 803 directs the operation of avertex fetcher 805 that reads vertex data from memory and executesvertex-processing commands provided by command streamer 803. In someembodiments, vertex fetcher 805 provides vertex data to a vertex shader807, which performs coordinate space transformation and lightingoperations to each vertex. In some embodiments, vertex fetcher 805 andvertex shader 807 execute vertex-processing instructions by dispatchingexecution threads to execution units 852A-852B via a thread dispatcher831.

In some embodiments, execution units 852A-852B are an array of vectorprocessors having an instruction set for performing graphics and mediaoperations. In some embodiments, execution units 852A-852B have anattached L1 cache 851 that is specific for each array or shared betweenthe arrays. The cache can be configured as a data cache, an instructioncache, or a single cache that is partitioned to contain data andinstructions in different partitions.

In some embodiments, geometry pipeline 820 includes tessellationcomponents to perform hardware-accelerated tessellation of 3D objects.In some embodiments, a programmable hull shader 811 configures thetessellation operations. A programmable domain shader 817 providesback-end evaluation of tessellation output. A tessellator 813 operatesat the direction of hull shader 811 and contains special purpose logicto generate a set of detailed geometric objects based on a coarsegeometric model that is provided as input to geometry pipeline 820. Insome embodiments, if tessellation is not used, tessellation components(e.g., hull shader 811, tessellator 813, and domain shader 817) can bebypassed.

In some embodiments, complete geometric objects can be processed by ageometry shader 819 via one or more threads dispatched to executionunits 852A-852B, or can proceed directly to the clipper 829. In someembodiments, the geometry shader operates on entire geometric objects,rather than vertices or patches of vertices as in previous stages of thegraphics pipeline. If the tessellation is disabled the geometry shader819 receives input from the vertex shader 807. In some embodiments,geometry shader 819 is programmable by a geometry shader program toperform geometry tessellation if the tessellation units are disabled.

Before rasterization, a clipper 829 processes vertex data. The clipper829 may be a fixed function clipper or a programmable clipper havingclipping and geometry shader functions. In some embodiments, arasterizer and depth test component 873 in the render output pipeline870 dispatches pixel shaders to convert the geometric objects into perpixel representations. In some embodiments, pixel shader logic isincluded in thread execution logic 850. In some embodiments, anapplication can bypass the rasterizer and depth test component 873 andaccess un-rasterized vertex data via a stream out unit 823.

The graphics processor 800 has an interconnect bus, interconnect fabric,or some other interconnect mechanism that allows data and messagepassing amongst the major components of the processor. In someembodiments, execution units 852A-852B and associated logic units (e.g.,L1 cache 851, sampler 854, texture cache 858, etc.) interconnect via adata port 856 to perform memory access and communicate with renderoutput pipeline components of the processor. In some embodiments,sampler 854, caches 851, 858 and execution units 852A-852B each haveseparate memory access paths. In one embodiment the texture cache 858can also be configured as a sampler cache.

In some embodiments, render output pipeline 870 contains a rasterizerand depth test component 873 that converts vertex-based objects into anassociated pixel-based representation. In some embodiments, therasterizer logic includes a windower/masker unit to perform fixedfunction triangle and line rasterization. An associated render cache 878and depth cache 879 are also available in some embodiments. A pixeloperations component 877 performs pixel-based operations on the data,though in some instances, pixel operations associated with 2D operations(e.g. bit block image transfers with blending) are performed by the 2Dengine 841, or substituted at display time by the display controller 843using overlay display planes. In some embodiments, a shared L3 cache 875is available to all graphics components, allowing the sharing of datawithout the use of main system memory.

In some embodiments, graphics processor media pipeline 830 includes amedia engine 837 and a video front-end 834. In some embodiments, videofront-end 834 receives pipeline commands from the command streamer 803.In some embodiments, media pipeline 830 includes a separate commandstreamer. In some embodiments, video front-end 834 processes mediacommands before sending the command to the media engine 837. In someembodiments, media engine 837 includes thread spawning functionality tospawn threads for dispatch to thread execution logic 850 via threaddispatcher 831.

In some embodiments, graphics processor 800 includes a display engine840. In some embodiments, display engine 840 is external to processor800 and couples with the graphics processor via the ring interconnect802, or some other interconnect bus or fabric. In some embodiments,display engine 840 includes a 2D engine 841 and a display controller843. In some embodiments, display engine 840 contains special purposelogic capable of operating independently of the 3D pipeline. In someembodiments, display controller 843 couples with a display device (notshown), which may be a system integrated display device, as in a laptopcomputer, or an external display device attached via a display deviceconnector.

In some embodiments, the geometry pipeline 820 and media pipeline 830are configurable to perform operations based on multiple graphics andmedia programming interfaces and are not specific to any one applicationprogramming interface (API). In some embodiments, driver software forthe graphics processor translates API calls that are specific to aparticular graphics or media library into commands that can be processedby the graphics processor. In some embodiments, support is provided forthe Open Graphics Library (OpenGL), Open Computing Language (OpenCL),and/or Vulkan graphics and compute API, all from the Khronos Group. Insome embodiments, support may also be provided for the Direct3D libraryfrom the Microsoft Corporation. In some embodiments, a combination ofthese libraries may be supported. Support may also be provided for theOpen Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV). A future API with acompatible 3D pipeline would also be supported if a mapping can be madefrom the pipeline of the future API to the pipeline of the graphicsprocessor.

Graphics Pipeline Programming

FIG. 9A is a block diagram illustrating a graphics processor commandformat 900 according to some embodiments. FIG. 9B is a block diagramillustrating a graphics processor command sequence 910 according to anembodiment. The solid lined boxes in FIG. 9A illustrate the componentsthat are generally included in a graphics command while the dashed linesinclude components that are optional or that are only included in asub-set of the graphics commands. The exemplary graphics processorcommand format 900 of FIG. 9A includes data fields to identify a client902, a command operation code (opcode) 904, and data 906 for thecommand. A sub-opcode 905 and a command size 908 are also included insome commands.

In some embodiments, client 902 specifies the client unit of thegraphics device that processes the command data. In some embodiments, agraphics processor command parser examines the client field of eachcommand to condition the further processing of the command and route thecommand data to the appropriate client unit. In some embodiments, thegraphics processor client units include a memory interface unit, arender unit, a 2D unit, a 3D unit, and a media unit. Each client unithas a corresponding processing pipeline that processes the commands.Once the command is received by the client unit, the client unit readsthe opcode 904 and, if present, sub-opcode 905 to determine theoperation to perform. The client unit performs the command usinginformation in data field 906. For some commands an explicit commandsize 908 is expected to specify the size of the command. In someembodiments, the command parser automatically determines the size of atleast some of the commands based on the command opcode. In someembodiments commands are aligned via multiples of a double word.

The flow diagram in FIG. 9B illustrates an exemplary graphics processorcommand sequence 910. In some embodiments, software or firmware of adata processing system that features an embodiment of a graphicsprocessor uses a version of the command sequence shown to set up,execute, and terminate a set of graphics operations. A sample commandsequence is shown and described for purposes of example only asembodiments are not limited to these specific commands or to thiscommand sequence. Moreover, the commands may be issued as batch ofcommands in a command sequence, such that the graphics processor willprocess the sequence of commands in at least partially concurrence.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor command sequence 910 maybegin with a pipeline flush command 912 to cause any active graphicspipeline to complete the currently pending commands for the pipeline. Insome embodiments, the 3D pipeline 922 and the media pipeline 924 do notoperate concurrently. The pipeline flush is performed to cause theactive graphics pipeline to complete any pending commands. In responseto a pipeline flush, the command parser for the graphics processor willpause command processing until the active drawing engines completepending operations and the relevant read caches are invalidated.Optionally, any data in the render cache that is marked ‘dirty’ can beflushed to memory. In some embodiments, pipeline flush command 912 canbe used for pipeline synchronization or before placing the graphicsprocessor into a low power state.

In some embodiments, a pipeline select command 913 is used when acommand sequence requires the graphics processor to explicitly switchbetween pipelines. In some embodiments, a pipeline select command 913 isrequired only once within an execution context before issuing pipelinecommands unless the context is to issue commands for both pipelines. Insome embodiments, a pipeline flush command 912 is required immediatelybefore a pipeline switch via the pipeline select command 913.

In some embodiments, a pipeline control command 914 configures agraphics pipeline for operation and is used to program the 3D pipeline922 and the media pipeline 924. In some embodiments, pipeline controlcommand 914 configures the pipeline state for the active pipeline. Inone embodiment, the pipeline control command 914 is used for pipelinesynchronization and to clear data from one or more cache memories withinthe active pipeline before processing a batch of commands.

In some embodiments, return buffer state commands 916 are used toconfigure a set of return buffers for the respective pipelines to writedata. Some pipeline operations require the allocation, selection, orconfiguration of one or more return buffers into which the operationswrite intermediate data during processing. In some embodiments, thegraphics processor also uses one or more return buffers to store outputdata and to perform cross thread communication. In some embodiments, thereturn buffer state 916 includes selecting the size and number of returnbuffers to use for a set of pipeline operations.

The remaining commands in the command sequence differ based on theactive pipeline for operations. Based on a pipeline determination 920,the command sequence is tailored to the 3D pipeline 922 beginning withthe 3D pipeline state 930 or the media pipeline 924 beginning at themedia pipeline state 940.

The commands to configure the 3D pipeline state 930 include 3D statesetting commands for vertex buffer state, vertex element state, constantcolor state, depth buffer state, and other state variables that are tobe configured before 3D primitive commands are processed. The values ofthese commands are determined at least in part based on the particular3D API in use. In some embodiments, 3D pipeline state 930 commands arealso able to selectively disable or bypass certain pipeline elements ifthose elements will not be used.

In some embodiments, 3D primitive 932 command is used to submit 3Dprimitives to be processed by the 3D pipeline. Commands and associatedparameters that are passed to the graphics processor via the 3Dprimitive 932 command are forwarded to the vertex fetch function in thegraphics pipeline. The vertex fetch function uses the 3D primitive 932command data to generate vertex data structures. The vertex datastructures are stored in one or more return buffers. In someembodiments, 3D primitive 932 command is used to perform vertexoperations on 3D primitives via vertex shaders. To process vertexshaders, 3D pipeline 922 dispatches shader execution threads to graphicsprocessor execution units.

In some embodiments, 3D pipeline 922 is triggered via an execute 934command or event. In some embodiments, a register write triggers commandexecution. In some embodiments execution is triggered via a ‘go’ or‘kick’ command in the command sequence. In one embodiment, commandexecution is triggered using a pipeline synchronization command to flushthe command sequence through the graphics pipeline. The 3D pipeline willperform geometry processing for the 3D primitives. Once operations arecomplete, the resulting geometric objects are rasterized and the pixelengine colors the resulting pixels. Additional commands to control pixelshading and pixel back end operations may also be included for thoseoperations.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor command sequence 910 followsthe media pipeline 924 path when performing media operations. Ingeneral, the specific use and manner of programming for the mediapipeline 924 depends on the media or compute operations to be performed.Specific media decode operations may be offloaded to the media pipelineduring media decode. In some embodiments, the media pipeline can also bebypassed and media decode can be performed in whole or in part usingresources provided by one or more general-purpose processing cores. Inone embodiment, the media pipeline also includes elements forgeneral-purpose graphics processor unit (GPGPU) operations, where thegraphics processor is used to perform SIMD vector operations usingcomputational shader programs that are not explicitly related to therendering of graphics primitives.

In some embodiments, media pipeline 924 is configured in a similarmanner as the 3D pipeline 922. A set of commands to configure the mediapipeline state 940 are dispatched or placed into a command queue beforethe media object commands 942. In some embodiments, commands for themedia pipeline state 940 include data to configure the media pipelineelements that will be used to process the media objects. This includesdata to configure the video decode and video encode logic within themedia pipeline, such as encode or decode format. In some embodiments,commands for the media pipeline state 940 also support the use of one ormore pointers to “indirect” state elements that contain a batch of statesettings.

In some embodiments, media object commands 942 supply pointers to mediaobjects for processing by the media pipeline. The media objects includememory buffers containing video data to be processed. In someembodiments, all media pipeline states must be valid before issuing amedia object command 942. Once the pipeline state is configured andmedia object commands 942 are queued, the media pipeline 924 istriggered via an execute command 944 or an equivalent execute event(e.g., register write). Output from media pipeline 924 may then be postprocessed by operations provided by the 3D pipeline 922 or the mediapipeline 924. In some embodiments, GPGPU operations are configured andexecuted in a similar manner as media operations.

Graphics Software Architecture

FIG. 10 illustrates exemplary graphics software architecture for a dataprocessing system 1000 according to some embodiments. In someembodiments, software architecture includes a 3D graphics application1010, an operating system 1020, and at least one processor 1030. In someembodiments, processor 1030 includes a graphics processor 1032 and oneor more general-purpose processor core(s) 1034. The graphics application1010 and operating system 1020 each execute in the system memory 1050 ofthe data processing system.

In some embodiments, 3D graphics application 1010 contains one or moreshader programs including shader instructions 1012. The shader languageinstructions may be in a high-level shader language, such as the HighLevel Shader Language (HLSL) or the OpenGL Shader Language (GLSL). Theapplication also includes executable instructions 1014 in a machinelanguage suitable for execution by the general-purpose processor core1034. The application also includes graphics objects 1016 defined byvertex data.

In some embodiments, operating system 1020 is a Microsoft® Windows®operating system from the Microsoft Corporation, a proprietary UNIX-likeoperating system, or an open source UNIX-like operating system using avariant of the Linux kernel. The operating system 1020 can support agraphics API 1022 such as the Direct3D API, the OpenGL API, or theVulkan API. When the Direct3D API is in use, the operating system 1020uses a front-end shader compiler 1024 to compile any shader instructions1012 in HLSL into a lower-level shader language. The compilation may bea just-in-time (JIT) compilation or the application can perform shaderpre-compilation. In some embodiments, high-level shaders are compiledinto low-level shaders during the compilation of the 3D graphicsapplication 1010. In some embodiments, the shader instructions 1012 areprovided in an intermediate form, such as a version of the StandardPortable Intermediate Representation (SPIR) used by the Vulkan API.

In some embodiments, user mode graphics driver 1026 contains a back-endshader compiler 1027 to convert the shader instructions 1012 into ahardware specific representation. When the OpenGL API is in use, shaderinstructions 1012 in the GLSL high-level language are passed to a usermode graphics driver 1026 for compilation. In some embodiments, usermode graphics driver 1026 uses operating system kernel mode functions1028 to communicate with a kernel mode graphics driver 1029. In someembodiments, kernel mode graphics driver 1029 communicates with graphicsprocessor 1032 to dispatch commands and instructions.

IP Core Implementations

One or more aspects of at least one embodiment may be implemented byrepresentative code stored on a machine-readable medium which representsand/or defines logic within an integrated circuit such as a processor.For example, the machine-readable medium may include instructions whichrepresent various logic within the processor. When read by a machine,the instructions may cause the machine to fabricate the logic to performthe techniques described herein. Such representations, known as “IPcores,” are reusable units of logic for an integrated circuit that maybe stored on a tangible, machine-readable medium as a hardware modelthat describes the structure of the integrated circuit. The hardwaremodel may be supplied to various customers or manufacturing facilities,which load the hardware model on fabrication machines that manufacturethe integrated circuit. The integrated circuit may be fabricated suchthat the circuit performs operations described in association with anyof the embodiments described herein.

FIG. 11A is a block diagram illustrating an IP core development system1100 that may be used to manufacture an integrated circuit to performoperations according to an embodiment. The IP core development system1100 may be used to generate modular, re-usable designs that can beincorporated into a larger design or used to construct an entireintegrated circuit (e.g., an SOC integrated circuit). A design facility1130 can generate a software simulation 1110 of an IP core design in ahigh-level programming language (e.g., C/C++). The software simulation1110 can be used to design, test, and verify the behavior of the IP coreusing a simulation model 1112. The simulation model 1112 may includefunctional, behavioral, and/or timing simulations. A register transferlevel (RTL) design 1115 can then be created or synthesized from thesimulation model 1112. The RTL design 1115 is an abstraction of thebehavior of the integrated circuit that models the flow of digitalsignals between hardware registers, including the associated logicperformed using the modeled digital signals. In addition to an RTLdesign 1115, lower-level designs at the logic level or transistor levelmay also be created, designed, or synthesized. Thus, the particulardetails of the initial design and simulation may vary.

The RTL design 1115 or equivalent may be further synthesized by thedesign facility into a hardware model 1120, which may be in a hardwaredescription language (HDL), or some other representation of physicaldesign data. The HDL may be further simulated or tested to verify the IPcore design. The IP core design can be stored for delivery to a 3^(rd)party fabrication facility 1165 using non-volatile memory 1140 (e.g.,hard disk, flash memory, or any non-volatile storage medium).Alternatively, the IP core design may be transmitted (e.g., via theInternet) over a wired connection 1150 or wireless connection 1160. Thefabrication facility 1165 may then fabricate an integrated circuit thatis based at least in part on the IP core design. The fabricatedintegrated circuit can be configured to perform operations in accordancewith at least one embodiment described herein.

FIG. 11B illustrates a cross-section side view of an integrated circuitpackage assembly 1170, according to some embodiments described herein.The integrated circuit package assembly 1170 illustrates animplementation of one or more processor or accelerator devices asdescribed herein. The package assembly 1170 includes multiple units ofhardware logic 1172, 1174 connected to a substrate 1180. The logic 1172,1174 may be implemented at least partly in configurable logic orfixed-functionality logic hardware, and can include one or more portionsof any of the processor core(s), graphics processor(s), or otheraccelerator devices described herein. Each unit of logic 1172, 1174 canbe implemented within a semiconductor die and coupled with the substrate1180 via an interconnect structure 1173. The interconnect structure 1173may be configured to route electrical signals between the logic 1172,1174 and the substrate 1180, and can include interconnects such as, butnot limited to bumps or pillars. In some embodiments, the interconnectstructure 1173 may be configured to route electrical signals such as,for example, input/output (I/O) signals and/or power or ground signalsassociated with the operation of the logic 1172, 1174. In someembodiments, the substrate 1180 is an epoxy-based laminate substrate.The package substrate 1180 may include other suitable types ofsubstrates in other embodiments. The package assembly 1170 can beconnected to other electrical devices via a package interconnect 1183.The package interconnect 1183 may be coupled to a surface of thesubstrate 1180 to route electrical signals to other electrical devices,such as a motherboard, other chipset, or multi-chip module.

In some embodiments, the units of logic 1172, 1174 are electricallycoupled with a bridge 1182 that is configured to route electricalsignals between the logic 1172, 1174. The bridge 1182 may be a denseinterconnect structure that provides a route for electrical signals. Thebridge 1182 may include a bridge substrate composed of glass or asuitable semiconductor material. Electrical routing features can beformed on the bridge substrate to provide a chip-to-chip connectionbetween the logic 1172, 1174.

Although two units of logic 1172, 1174 and a bridge 1182 areillustrated, embodiments described herein may include more or fewerlogic units on one or more dies. The one or more dies may be connectedby zero or more bridges, as the bridge 1182 may be excluded when thelogic is included on a single die. Alternatively, multiple dies or unitsof logic can be connected by one or more bridges. Additionally, multiplelogic units, dies, and bridges can be connected together in otherpossible configurations, including three-dimensional configurations.

Exemplary System on a Chip Integrated Circuit

FIGS. 12-14 illustrated exemplary integrated circuits and associatedgraphics processors that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores,according to various embodiments described herein. In addition to whatis illustrated, other logic and circuits may be included, includingadditional graphics processors/cores, peripheral interface controllers,or general-purpose processor cores.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system on a chipintegrated circuit 1200 that may be fabricated using one or more IPcores, according to an embodiment. Exemplary integrated circuit 1200includes one or more application processor(s) 1205 (e.g., CPUs), atleast one graphics processor 1210, and may additionally include an imageprocessor 1215 and/or a video processor 1220, any of which may be amodular IP core from the same or multiple different design facilities.Integrated circuit 1200 includes peripheral or bus logic including a USBcontroller 1225, UART controller 1230, an SPI/SDIO controller 1235, andan I²S/I²C controller 1240. Additionally, the integrated circuit caninclude a display device 1245 coupled to one or more of ahigh-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) controller 1250 and a mobileindustry processor interface (MIPI) display interface 1255. Storage maybe provided by a flash memory subsystem 1260 including flash memory anda flash memory controller. Memory interface may be provided via a memorycontroller 1265 for access to SDRAM or SRAM memory devices. Someintegrated circuits additionally include an embedded security engine1270.

FIGS. 13A-13B are block diagrams illustrating exemplary graphicsprocessors for use within an SoC, according to embodiments describedherein. FIG. 13A illustrates an exemplary graphics processor 1310 of asystem on a chip integrated circuit that may be fabricated using one ormore IP cores, according to an embodiment. FIG. 13B illustrates anadditional exemplary graphics processor 1340 of a system on a chipintegrated circuit that may be fabricated using one or more IP cores,according to an embodiment. Graphics processor 1310 of FIG. 13A is anexample of a low power graphics processor core. Graphics processor 1340of FIG. 13B is an example of a higher performance graphics processorcore. Each of the graphics processors 1310, 1340 can be variants of thegraphics processor 1210 of FIG. 12 .

As shown in FIG. 13A, graphics processor 1310 includes a vertexprocessor 1305 and one or more fragment processor(s) 1315A-1315N (e.g.,1315A, 1315B, 1315C, 1315D, through 1315N-1, and 1315N). Graphicsprocessor 1310 can execute different shader programs via separate logic,such that the vertex processor 1305 is optimized to execute operationsfor vertex shader programs, while the one or more fragment processor(s)1315A-1315N execute fragment (e.g., pixel) shading operations forfragment or pixel shader programs. The vertex processor 1305 performsthe vertex processing stage of the 3D graphics pipeline and generatesprimitives and vertex data. The fragment processor(s) 1315A-1315N usethe primitive and vertex data generated by the vertex processor 1305 toproduce a framebuffer that is displayed on a display device. In oneembodiment, the fragment processor(s) 1315A-1315N are optimized toexecute fragment shader programs as provided for in the OpenGL API,which may be used to perform similar operations as a pixel shaderprogram as provided for in the Direct 3D API.

Graphics processor 1310 additionally includes one or more memorymanagement units (MMUs) 1320A-1320B, cache(s) 1325A-1325B, and circuitinterconnect(s) 1330A-1330B. The one or more MMU(s) 1320A-1320B providefor virtual to physical address mapping for the graphics processor 1310,including for the vertex processor 1305 and/or fragment processor(s)1315A-1315N, which may reference vertex or image/texture data stored inmemory, in addition to vertex or image/texture data stored in the one ormore cache(s) 1325A-1325B. In one embodiment the one or more MMU(s)1320A-1320B may be synchronized with other MMUs within the system,including one or more MMUs associated with the one or more applicationprocessor(s) 1205, image processor 1215, and/or video processor 1220 ofFIG. 12 , such that each processor 1205-1220 can participate in a sharedor unified virtual memory system. The one or more circuitinterconnect(s) 1330A-1330B enable graphics processor 1310 to interfacewith other IP cores within the SoC, either via an internal bus of theSoC or via a direct connection, according to embodiments.

As shown FIG. 13B, graphics processor 1340 includes the one or moreMMU(s) 1320A-1320B, caches 1325A-1325B, and circuit interconnects1330A-1330B of the graphics processor 1310 of FIG. 13A. Graphicsprocessor 1340 includes one or more shader core(s) 1355A-1355N (e.g.,1455A, 1355B, 1355C, 1355D, 1355E, 1355F, through 1355N-1, and 1355N),which provides for a unified shader core architecture in which a singlecore or type or core can execute all types of programmable shader code,including shader program code to implement vertex shaders, fragmentshaders, and/or compute shaders. The exact number of shader corespresent can vary among embodiments and implementations. Additionally,graphics processor 1340 includes an inter-core task manager 1345, whichacts as a thread dispatcher to dispatch execution threads to one or moreshader cores 1355A-1355N and a tiling unit 1358 to accelerate tilingoperations for tile-based rendering, in which rendering operations for ascene are subdivided in image space, for example to exploit localspatial coherence within a scene or to optimize use of internal caches.

FIGS. 14A-14B illustrate additional exemplary graphics processor logicaccording to embodiments described herein. FIG. 14A illustrates agraphics core 1400 that may be included within the graphics processor1210 of FIG. 12 , and may be a unified shader core 1355A-1355N as inFIG. 13B. FIG. 14B illustrates a highly-parallel general-purposegraphics processing unit 1430 suitable for deployment on a multi-chipmodule.

As shown in FIG. 14A, the graphics core 1400 includes a sharedinstruction cache 1402, a texture unit 1418, and a cache/shared memory1420 that are common to the execution resources within the graphics core1400. The graphics core 1400 can include multiple slices 1401A-1401N orpartition for each core, and a graphics processor can include multipleinstances of the graphics core 1400. The slices 1401A-1401N can includesupport logic including a local instruction cache 1404A-1404N, a threadscheduler 1406A-1406N, a thread dispatcher 1408A-1408N, and a set ofregisters 1410A. To perform logic operations, the slices 1401A-1401N caninclude a set of additional function units (AFUs 1412A-1412N),floating-point units (FPU 1414A-1414N), integer arithmetic logic units(ALUs 1416-1416N), address computational units (ACU 1413A-1413N),double-precision floating-point units (DPFPU 1415A-1415N), and matrixprocessing units (MPU 1417A-1417N).

Some of the computational units operate at a specific precision. Forexample, the FPUs 1414A-1414N can perform single-precision (32-bit) andhalf-precision (16-bit) floating point operations, while the DPFPUs1415A-1415N perform double precision (64-bit) floating point operations.The ALUs 1416A-1416N can perform variable precision integer operationsat 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit precision, and can be configured for mixedprecision operations. The MPUs 1417A-1417N can also be configured formixed precision matrix operations, including half-precision floatingpoint and 8-bit integer operations. The MPUs 1417-1417N can perform avariety of matrix operations to accelerate machine learning applicationframeworks, including enabling support for accelerated general matrix tomatrix multiplication (GEMM). The AFUs 1412A-1412N can performadditional logic operations not supported by the floating-point orinteger units, including trigonometric operations (e.g., Sine, Cosine,etc.).

As shown in FIG. 14B, a general-purpose processing unit (GPGPU) 1430 canbe configured to enable highly-parallel compute operations to beperformed by an array of graphics processing units. Additionally, theGPGPU 1430 can be linked directly to other instances of the GPGPU tocreate a multi-GPU cluster to improve training speed for particularlydeep neural networks. The GPGPU 1430 includes a host interface 1432 toenable a connection with a host processor. In one embodiment the hostinterface 1432 is a PCI Express interface. However, the host interfacecan also be a vendor specific communications interface or communicationsfabric. The GPGPU 1430 receives commands from the host processor anduses a global scheduler 1434 to distribute execution threads associatedwith those commands to a set of compute clusters 1436A-1436H. Thecompute clusters 1436A-1436H share a cache memory 1438. The cache memory1438 can serve as a higher-level cache for cache memories within thecompute clusters 1436A-1436H.

The GPGPU 1430 includes memory 1434A-1434B coupled with the computeclusters 1436A-1436H via a set of memory controllers 1442A-1442B. Invarious embodiments, the memory 1434A-1434B can include various types ofmemory devices including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or graphicsrandom access memory, such as synchronous graphics random access memory(SGRAM), including graphics double data rate (GDDR) memory.

In one embodiment the compute clusters 1436A-1436H each include a set ofgraphics cores, such as the graphics core 1400 of FIG. 14A, which caninclude multiple types of integer and floating point logic units thatcan perform computational operations at a range of precisions includingsuited for machine learning computations. For example and in oneembodiment at least a subset of the floating point units in each of thecompute clusters 1436A-1436H can be configured to perform 16-bit or32-bit floating point operations, while a different subset of thefloating point units can be configured to perform 64-bit floating pointoperations.

Multiple instances of the GPGPU 1430 can be configured to operate as acompute cluster. The communication mechanism used by the compute clusterfor synchronization and data exchange varies across embodiments. In oneembodiment the multiple instances of the GPGPU 1430 communicate over thehost interface 1432. In one embodiment the GPGPU 1430 includes an I/Ohub 1439 that couples the GPGPU 1430 with a GPU link 1440 that enables adirect connection to other instances of the GPGPU. In one embodiment theGPU link 1440 is coupled to a dedicated GPU-to-GPU bridge that enablescommunication and synchronization between multiple instances of theGPGPU 1430. In one embodiment the GPU link 1440 couples with a highspeed interconnect to transmit and receive data to other GPGPUs orparallel processors. In one embodiment the multiple instances of theGPGPU 1430 are located in separate data processing systems andcommunicate via a network device that is accessible via the hostinterface 1432. In one embodiment the GPU link 1440 can be configured toenable a connection to a host processor in addition to or as analternative to the host interface 1432.

While the illustrated configuration of the GPGPU 1430 can be configuredto train neural networks, one embodiment provides alternateconfiguration of the GPGPU 1430 that can be configured for deploymentwithin a high performance or low power inferencing platform. In aninferencing configuration the GPGPU 1430 includes fewer of the computeclusters 1436A-1436H relative to the training configuration.Additionally, the memory technology associated with the memory1434A-1434B may differ between inferencing and training configurations,with higher bandwidth memory technologies devoted to trainingconfigurations. In one embodiment the inferencing configuration of theGPGPU 1430 can support inferencing specific instructions. For example,an inferencing configuration can provide support for one or more 8-bitinteger dot product instructions, which are commonly used duringinferencing operations for deployed neural networks.

Machine Learning Overview

A machine learning algorithm is an algorithm that can learn based on aset of data. Embodiments of machine learning algorithms can be designedto model high-level abstractions within a data set. For example, imagerecognition algorithms can be used to determine which of severalcategories to which a given input belong; regression algorithms canoutput a numerical value given an input; and pattern recognitionalgorithms can be used to generate translated text or perform text tospeech and/or speech recognition.

An exemplary type of machine learning algorithm is a neural network.There are many types of neural networks; a simple type of neural networkis a feedforward network. A feedforward network may be implemented as anacyclic graph in which the nodes are arranged in layers. Typically, afeedforward network topology includes an input layer and an output layerthat are separated by at least one hidden layer. The hidden layertransforms input received by the input layer into a representation thatis useful for generating output in the output layer. The network nodesare fully connected via edges to the nodes in adjacent layers, but thereare no edges between nodes within each layer. Data received at the nodesof an input layer of a feedforward network are propagated (i.e., “fedforward”) to the nodes of the output layer via an activation functionthat calculates the states of the nodes of each successive layer in thenetwork based on coefficients (“weights”) respectively associated witheach of the edges connecting the layers. Depending on the specific modelbeing represented by the algorithm being executed, the output from theneural network algorithm can take various forms.

Before a machine learning algorithm can be used to model a particularproblem, the algorithm is trained using a training data set. Training aneural network involves selecting a network topology, using a set oftraining data representing a problem being modeled by the network, andadjusting the weights until the network model performs with a minimalerror for all instances of the training data set. For example, during asupervised learning training process for a neural network, the outputproduced by the network in response to the input representing aninstance in a training data set is compared to the “correct” labeledoutput for that instance, an error signal representing the differencebetween the output and the labeled output is calculated, and the weightsassociated with the connections are adjusted to minimize that error asthe error signal is backward propagated through the layers of thenetwork. The network is considered “trained” when the errors for each ofthe outputs generated from the instances of the training data set areminimized.

The accuracy of a machine learning algorithm can be affectedsignificantly by the quality of the data set used to train thealgorithm. The training process can be computationally intensive and mayrequire a significant amount of time on a conventional general-purposeprocessor. Accordingly, parallel processing hardware is used to trainmany types of machine learning algorithms. This is particularly usefulfor optimizing the training of neural networks, as the computationsperformed in adjusting the coefficients in neural networks lendthemselves naturally to parallel implementations. Specifically, manymachine learning algorithms and software applications have been adaptedto make use of the parallel processing hardware within general-purposegraphics processing devices.

FIG. 15 is a generalized diagram of a machine learning software stack1500. A machine learning application 1502 can be configured to train aneural network using a training dataset or to use a trained deep neuralnetwork to implement machine intelligence. The machine learningapplication 1502 can include training and inference functionality for aneural network and/or specialized software that can be used to train aneural network before deployment. The machine learning application 1502can implement any type of machine intelligence including but not limitedto image recognition, mapping and localization, autonomous navigation,speech synthesis, medical imaging, or language translation.

Hardware acceleration for the machine learning application 1502 can beenabled via a machine learning framework 1504. The machine learningframework 1504 can provide a library of machine learning primitives.Machine learning primitives are basic operations that are commonlyperformed by machine learning algorithms. Without the machine learningframework 1504, developers of machine learning algorithms would berequired to create and optimize the main computational logic associatedwith the machine learning algorithm, then re-optimize the computationallogic as new parallel processors are developed. Instead, the machinelearning application can be configured to perform the necessarycomputations using the primitives provided by the machine learningframework 1504. Exemplary primitives include tensor convolutions,activation functions, and pooling, which are computational operationsthat are performed while training a convolutional neural network (CNN).The machine learning framework 1504 can also provide primitives toimplement basic linear algebra subprograms performed by manymachine-learning algorithms, such as matrix and vector operations.

The machine learning framework 1504 can process input data received fromthe machine learning application 1502 and generate the appropriate inputto a compute framework 1506. The compute framework 1506 can abstract theunderlying instructions provided to the GPGPU driver 1508 to enable themachine learning framework 1504 to take advantage of hardwareacceleration via the GPGPU hardware 1510 without requiring the machinelearning framework 1504 to have intimate knowledge of the architectureof the GPGPU hardware 1510. Additionally, the compute framework 1506 canenable hardware acceleration for the machine learning framework 1504across a variety of types and generations of the GPGPU hardware 1510.

Machine Learning Neural Network Implementations

The computing architecture provided by embodiments described herein canbe configured to perform the types of parallel processing that isparticularly suited for training and deploying neural networks formachine learning. A neural network can be generalized as a network offunctions having a graph relationship. As is known in the art, there area variety of types of neural network implementations used in machinelearning. One exemplary type of neural network is the feedforwardnetwork, as previously described.

A second exemplary type of neural network is the Convolutional NeuralNetwork (CNN). A CNN is a specialized feedforward neural network forprocessing data having a known, grid-like topology, such as image data.Accordingly, CNNs are commonly used for compute vision and imagerecognition applications, but they also may be used for other types ofpattern recognition such as speech and language processing. The nodes inthe CNN input layer are organized into a set of “filters” (featuredetectors inspired by the receptive fields found in the retina), and theoutput of each set of filters is propagated to nodes in successivelayers of the network. The computations for a CNN include applying theconvolution mathematical operation to each filter to produce the outputof that filter. Convolution is a specialized kind of mathematicaloperation performed by two functions to produce a third function that isa modified version of one of the two original functions. Inconvolutional network terminology, the first function to the convolutioncan be referred to as the input, while the second function can bereferred to as the convolution kernel. The output may be referred to asthe feature map. For example, the input to a convolution layer can be amultidimensional array of data that defines the various color componentsof an input image. The convolution kernel can be a multidimensionalarray of parameters, where the parameters are adapted by the trainingprocess for the neural network.

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are a family of feedforward neuralnetworks that include feedback connections between layers. RNNs enablemodeling of sequential data by sharing parameter data across differentparts of the neural network. The architecture for a RNN includes cycles.The cycles represent the influence of a present value of a variable onits own value at a future time, as at least a portion of the output datafrom the RNN is used as feedback for processing subsequent input in asequence. This feature makes RNNs particularly useful for languageprocessing due to the variable nature in which language data can becomposed.

The figures described below present exemplary feedforward, CNN, and RNNnetworks, as well as describe a general process for respectivelytraining and deploying each of those types of networks. It will beunderstood that these descriptions are exemplary and non-limiting as toany specific embodiment described herein and the concepts illustratedcan be applied generally to deep neural networks and machine learningtechniques in general.

The exemplary neural networks described above can be used to performdeep learning. Deep learning is machine learning using deep neuralnetworks. The deep neural networks used in deep learning are artificialneural networks composed of multiple hidden layers, as opposed toshallow neural networks that include only a single hidden layer. Deeperneural networks are generally more computationally intensive to train.However, the additional hidden layers of the network enable multisteppattern recognition that results in reduced output error relative toshallow machine learning techniques.

Deep neural networks used in deep learning typically include a front-endnetwork to perform feature recognition coupled to a back-end networkwhich represents a mathematical model that can perform operations (e.g.,object classification, speech recognition, etc.) based on the featurerepresentation provided to the model. Deep learning enables machinelearning to be performed without requiring hand crafted featureengineering to be performed for the model. Instead, deep neural networkscan learn features based on statistical structure or correlation withinthe input data. The learned features can be provided to a mathematicalmodel that can map detected features to an output. The mathematicalmodel used by the network is generally specialized for the specific taskto be performed, and different models will be used to perform differenttask.

Once the neural network is structured, a learning model can be appliedto the network to train the network to perform specific tasks. Thelearning model describes how to adjust the weights within the model toreduce the output error of the network. Backpropagation of errors is acommon method used to train neural networks. An input vector ispresented to the network for processing. The output of the network iscompared to the desired output using a loss function and an error valueis calculated for each of the neurons in the output layer. The errorvalues are then propagated backwards until each neuron has an associatederror value which roughly represents its contribution to the originaloutput. The network can then learn from those errors using an algorithm,such as the stochastic gradient descent algorithm, to update the weightsof the of the neural network.

FIG. 16A-16B illustrate an exemplary convolutional neural network. FIG.16A illustrates various layers within a CNN. As shown in FIG. 16A, anexemplary CNN used to model image processing can receive input 1602describing the red, green, and blue (RGB) components of an input image.The input 1602 can be processed by multiple convolutional layers (e.g.,first convolutional layer 1604, second convolutional layer 1606). Theoutput from the multiple convolutional layers may optionally beprocessed by a set of fully connected layers 1608. Neurons in a fullyconnected layer have full connections to all activations in the previouslayer, as previously described for a feedforward network. The outputfrom the fully connected layers 1608 can be used to generate an outputresult from the network. The activations within the fully connectedlayers 1608 can be computed using matrix multiplication instead ofconvolution. Not all CNN implementations are make use of fully connectedlayers 1608. For example, in some implementations the secondconvolutional layer 1606 can generate output for the CNN.

The convolutional layers are sparsely connected, which differs fromtraditional neural network configuration found in the fully connectedlayers 1608. Traditional neural network layers are fully connected, suchthat every output unit interacts with every input unit. However, theconvolutional layers are sparsely connected because the output of theconvolution of a field is input (instead of the respective state valueof each of the nodes in the field) to the nodes of the subsequent layer,as illustrated. The kernels associated with the convolutional layersperform convolution operations, the output of which is sent to the nextlayer. The dimensionality reduction performed within the convolutionallayers is one aspect that enables the CNN to scale to process largeimages.

FIG. 16B illustrates exemplary computation stages within a convolutionallayer of a CNN. Input to a convolutional layer 1612 of a CNN can beprocessed in three stages of a convolutional layer 1614. The threestages can include a convolution stage 1616, a detector stage 1618, anda pooling stage 1620. The convolution layer 1614 can then output data toa successive convolutional layer. The final convolutional layer of thenetwork can generate output feature map data or provide input to a fullyconnected layer, for example, to generate a classification value for theinput to the CNN.

In the convolution stage 1616 performs several convolutions in parallelto produce a set of linear activations. The convolution stage 1616 caninclude an affine transformation, which is any transformation that canbe specified as a linear transformation plus a translation. Affinetransformations include rotations, translations, scaling, andcombinations of these transformations. The convolution stage computesthe output of functions (e.g., neurons) that are connected to specificregions in the input, which can be determined as the local regionassociated with the neuron. The neurons compute a dot product betweenthe weights of the neurons and the region in the local input to whichthe neurons are connected. The output from the convolution stage 1616defines a set of linear activations that are processed by successivestages of the convolutional layer 1614.

The linear activations can be processed by a detector stage 1618. In thedetector stage 1618, each linear activation is processed by a non-linearactivation function. The non-linear activation function increases thenonlinear properties of the overall network without affecting thereceptive fields of the convolution layer. Several types of non-linearactivation functions may be used. One particular type is the rectifiedlinear unit (ReLU), which uses an activation function defined asƒ(x)=max (0, x), such that the activation is thresholded at zero.

The pooling stage 1620 uses a pooling function that replaces the outputof the second convolutional layer 1606 with a summary statistic of thenearby outputs. The pooling function can be used to introducetranslation invariance into the neural network, such that smalltranslations to the input do not change the pooled outputs. Invarianceto local translation can be useful in scenarios where the presence of afeature in the input data is more important than the precise location ofthe feature. Various types of pooling functions can be used during thepooling stage 1620, including max pooling, average pooling, and 12-normpooling. Additionally, some CNN implementations do not include a poolingstage. Instead, such implementations substitute and additionalconvolution stage having an increased stride relative to previousconvolution stages.

The output from the convolutional layer 1614 can then be processed bythe next layer 1622. The next layer 1622 can be an additionalconvolutional layer or one of the fully connected layers 1608. Forexample, the first convolutional layer 1604 of FIG. 16A can output tothe second convolutional layer 1606, while the second convolutionallayer can output to a first layer of the fully connected layers 1608.

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary recurrent neural network. In arecurrent neural network (RNN), the previous state of the networkinfluences the output of the current state of the network. RNNs can bebuilt in a variety of ways using a variety of functions. The use of RNNsgenerally revolves around using mathematical models to predict thefuture based on a prior sequence of inputs. For example, an RNN may beused to perform statistical language modeling to predict an upcomingword given a previous sequence of words. The illustrated RNN 1700 can bedescribed as having an input layer 1702 that receives an input vector,hidden layers 1704 to implement a recurrent function, a feedbackmechanism 1705 to enable a ‘memory’ of previous states, and an outputlayer 1706 to output a result. The RNN 1700 operates based ontime-steps. The state of the RNN at a given time step is influencedbased on the previous time step via the feedback mechanism 1705. For agiven time step, the state of the hidden layers 1704 is defined by theprevious state and the input at the current time step. An initial input(x1) at a first time step can be processed by the hidden layer 1704. Asecond input (x2) can be processed by the hidden layer 1704 using stateinformation that is determined during the processing of the initialinput (x1). A given state can be computed as s_(t)=ƒ(Ux_(t)+Ws_(t−1)),where U and W are parameter matrices. The function ƒ is generally anonlinearity, such as the hyperbolic tangent function (Tan h) or avariant of the rectifier function ƒ(x)=max(0, x). However, the specificmathematical function used in the hidden layers 1704 can vary dependingon the specific implementation details of the RNN 1700.

In addition to the basic CNN and RNN networks described, variations onthose networks may be enabled. One example RNN variant is the longshort-term memory (LSTM) RNN. LSTM RNNs are capable of learninglong-term dependencies that may be necessary for processing longersequences of language. A variant on the CNN is a convolutional deepbelief network, which has a structure similar to a CNN and is trained ina manner similar to a deep belief network. A deep belief network (DBN)is a generative neural network that is composed of multiple layers ofstochastic (random) variables. DBNs can be trained layer-by-layer usinggreedy unsupervised learning. The learned weights of the DBN can then beused to provide pre-train neural networks by determining an optimalinitial set of weights for the neural network.

FIG. 18 illustrates training and deployment of a deep neural network.Once a given network has been structured for a task the neural networkis trained using a training dataset 1802. Various training frameworkshave been developed to enable hardware acceleration of the trainingprocess. For example, the machine learning framework 1504 of FIG. 15 maybe configured as a training framework 1804. The training framework 1804can hook into an untrained neural network 1806 and enable the untrainedneural net to be trained using the parallel processing resourcesdescribed herein to generate a trained neural network 1808. To start thetraining process the initial weights may be chosen randomly or bypre-training using a deep belief network. The training cycle then beperformed in either a supervised or unsupervised manner.

Supervised learning is a learning method in which training is performedas a mediated operation, such as when the training dataset 1802 includesinput paired with the desired output for the input, or where thetraining dataset includes input having known output and the output ofthe neural network is manually graded. The network processes the inputsand compares the resulting outputs against a set of expected or desiredoutputs. Errors are then propagated back through the system. Thetraining framework 1804 can adjust to adjust the weights that controlthe untrained neural network 1806. The training framework 1804 canprovide tools to monitor how well the untrained neural network 1806 isconverging towards a model suitable to generating correct answers basedon known input data. The training process occurs repeatedly as theweights of the network are adjusted to refine the output generated bythe neural network. The training process can continue until the neuralnetwork reaches a statistically desired accuracy associated with atrained neural network 1808. The trained neural network 1808 can then bedeployed to implement any number of machine learning operations.

Unsupervised learning is a learning method in which the network attemptsto train itself using unlabeled data. Thus, for unsupervised learningthe training dataset 1802 will include input data without any associatedoutput data. The untrained neural network 1806 can learn groupingswithin the unlabeled input and can determine how individual inputs arerelated to the overall dataset. Unsupervised training can be used togenerate a self-organizing map, which is a type of trained neuralnetwork 1807 capable of performing operations useful in reducing thedimensionality of data. Unsupervised training can also be used toperform anomaly detection, which allows the identification of datapoints in an input dataset that deviate from the normal patterns of thedata.

Variations on supervised and unsupervised training may also be employed.Semi-supervised learning is a technique in which in the training dataset1802 includes a mix of labeled and unlabeled data of the samedistribution. Incremental learning is a variant of supervised learningin which input data is continuously used to further train the model.Incremental learning enables the trained neural network 1808 to adapt tothe new data 1812 without forgetting the knowledge instilled within thenetwork during initial training.

Whether supervised or unsupervised, the training process forparticularly deep neural networks may be too computationally intensivefor a single compute node. Instead of using a single compute node, adistributed network of computational nodes can be used to accelerate thetraining process.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating distributed learning.Distributed learning is a training model that uses multiple distributedcomputing nodes to perform supervised or unsupervised training of aneural network. The distributed computational nodes can each include oneor more host processors and one or more of the general-purposeprocessing nodes. As illustrated, distributed learning can be performedmodel parallelism 1902, data parallelism 1904, or a combination of modeland data parallelism 1904.

In model parallelism 1902, different computational nodes in adistributed system can perform training computations for different partsof a single network. For example, each layer of a neural network can betrained by a different processing node of the distributed system. Thebenefits of model parallelism include the ability to scale toparticularly large models. Splitting the computations associated withdifferent layers of the neural network enables the training of verylarge neural networks in which the weights of all layers would not fitinto the memory of a single computational node. In some instances, modelparallelism can be particularly useful in performing unsupervisedtraining of large neural networks.

In data parallelism 1904, the different nodes of the distributed networkhave a complete instance of the model and each node receives a differentportion of the data. The results from the different nodes are thencombined. While different approaches to data parallelism are possible,data parallel training approaches all require a technique of combiningresults and synchronizing the model parameters between each node.Exemplary approaches to combining data include parameter averaging andupdate based data parallelism. Parameter averaging trains each node on asubset of the training data and sets the global parameters (e.g.,weights, biases) to the average of the parameters from each node.Parameter averaging uses a central parameter server that maintains theparameter data. Update based data parallelism is similar to parameteraveraging except that instead of transferring parameters from the nodesto the parameter server, the updates to the model are transferred.Additionally, update based data parallelism can be performed in adecentralized manner, where the updates are compressed and transferredbetween nodes.

Combined model and data parallelism 1906 can be implemented, forexample, in a distributed system in which each computational nodeincludes multiple GPUs. Each node can have a complete instance of themodel with separate GPUs within each node are used to train differentportions of the model.

Distributed training has increased overhead relative to training on asingle machine. However, the parallel processors and GPGPUs describedherein can each implement various techniques to reduce the overhead ofdistributed training, including techniques to enable high bandwidthGPU-to-GPU data transfer and accelerated remote data synchronization.

Exemplary Machine Learning Applications

Machine learning can be applied to solve a variety of technologicalproblems, including but not limited to computer vision, autonomousdriving and navigation, speech recognition, and language processing.Computer vision has traditionally been one of the most active researchareas for machine learning applications. Applications of computer visionrange from reproducing human visual abilities, such as recognizingfaces, to creating new categories of visual abilities. For example,computer vision applications can be configured to recognize sound wavesfrom the vibrations induced in objects visible in a video. Parallelprocessor accelerated machine learning enables computer visionapplications to be trained using significantly larger training datasetthan previously feasible and enables inferencing systems to be deployedusing low power parallel processors.

Parallel processor accelerated machine learning has autonomous drivingapplications including lane and road sign recognition, obstacleavoidance, navigation, and driving control. Accelerated machine learningtechniques can be used to train driving models based on datasets thatdefine the appropriate responses to specific training input. Theparallel processors described herein can enable rapid training of theincreasingly complex neural networks used for autonomous drivingsolutions and enables the deployment of low power inferencing processorsin a mobile platform suitable for integration into autonomous vehicles.

Parallel processor accelerated deep neural networks have enabled machinelearning approaches to automatic speech recognition (ASR). ASR includesthe creation of a function that computes the most probable linguisticsequence given an input acoustic sequence. Accelerated machine learningusing deep neural networks have enabled the replacement of the hiddenMarkov models (HMMs) and Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) previously usedfor ASR.

Parallel processor accelerated machine learning can also be used toaccelerate natural language processing. Automatic learning procedurescan make use of statistical inference algorithms to produce models thatare robust to erroneous or unfamiliar input. Exemplary natural languageprocessor applications include automatic machine translation betweenhuman languages.

The parallel processing platforms used for machine learning can bedivided into training platforms and deployment platforms. Trainingplatforms are generally highly parallel and include optimizations toaccelerate multi-GPU single node training and multi-node, multi-GPUtraining, while deployed machine learning (e.g., inferencing) platformsgenerally include lower power parallel processors suitable for use inproducts such as cameras, autonomous robots, and autonomous vehicles.

Utilizing 3D Compression Blocks for Compression of Untyped Graphics Data

In conventional operation, GPU data compression is provided for colordata, and is used by typed data (3D and media applications). Thus, thedata compression pipeline in a graphics processing system is availablefor compression operations.

However, GPU compute data, such as data for machine learning and deeplearning operation, is untyped data, and thus the conventionalcompression operation is not applicable to such data.

In some embodiments, the 3D compression blocks that are conventionallyutilized for typed data are applied to untyped compute data. In someembodiments, current Graphics assets are utilized for compression ofmachine Learning (ML) data, using a current pipeline for 3D data.

A current system addresses typed data, utilizing a system layout fordata, wherein the data is not sequentially stored. However, machinelearning and deep learning data is generally untyped data, and isgenerally sequentially stored. In some embodiments, a system utilizesthe sequential storage of untyped data in the compression operation.

For 3D data, there is a state, wherein the state determines how the datais laid out, etc. In some embodiments, in order to reuse the 3Dcompression hardware for compression of untyped data, an apparatus,system, or process is to detect the memory allocation of the untypeddata by software, with the driver determining whether data is to becompressed.

In some embodiments, there is a further a conversion to a statefulbuffer, with allocation of data in buffer being indicated in the state.Thus, the system understands that compression is to be done, andprovides structure for the buffer to specify the parameters forcompression. The state includes a pointer to point to the data, and mayinclude elements such as the size of the buffer, the compression type,and a pointer to the auxiliary surface. In some embodiments, a smallauxiliary buffer is created to hold compression metadata for compressionof untyped data.

In some embodiments, for the layout of the buffer, the buffer is linearin format, which is how data is packed in memory.

In some embodiments, a driver can match the data format that is used asan aid to the algorithm. However, this is not required. If thedetermined data distribution is incorrect, this can be handled by thealgorithm. In some embodiments, for optimal operation, a system mayprovide a hint for compression regarding data, but there are other waysto handle this for the data in compression.

In some embodiments, a data port allows for transmission of DL/ML datawithout format conversion. For 3D data format, there is a conversion toshader format for pixel data. However, a different process is used formachine learning and deep learning data, wherein there is no formatconversion of the data. In some embodiments, the data port is modifiedto allow transmission without format conversion. In some embodiments,software will instead address the DL/ML data.

With regard to a compression block and cachelines, for 3D data thisdepends on how the pixels are hashed, which is known upfront foroperation. But for GPGPU operation this normally cannot be knownupfront. Rather, the hardware is required to understand the sequentialblock pattern. In some embodiments, an apparatus, system, or processaddresses the issue utilizing fixed blocks that are always sequential.This works as the data is generally sequential.

For data resolve, it is sometimes necessary to send data back to theCPU, where data back to the CPU needs to be uncompressed format. For 3Ddata, there is special hardware to handle the data transfer back to theCPU. In some embodiments, for compute data, the GPU kernel is used, anda process includes submitting a new kernel. The data write that isrequired is uncompressed data. However, the process does not make a copyof the data. Instead, the decompression is done in place. In someembodiments, a process includes submitting the kernel to the pipeline,and changing the description/pointer to the same buffer with the nowuncompressed data. For machine learning, the data is mapped to the GPU,and returned to be mapped to the CPU.

In some embodiments, the GPGPU programming API (e.g. OpenCL, DX, Metal)can be extended to pass a hint from application to the Graphics driverregarding data compression. This may be done at data allocation time(e.g. OpenCL function clCreateBuffer( ) call). The hints regardingcompression may include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) Whether compression should be enabled for the buffer. For example, abuffer that maps/unmaps too frequently, or is accessed rarely, will notbe a good candidate for compression.

(2) The native data type size that maps to the buffer (e.g. 8-bitinteger, 16-bit float, 32-bit float). This information may be used totune the data compression algorithm.

FIG. 20 is an illustration of a data compression pipeline in a graphicsprocessing system according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, adata compression pipeline is expanded to enable use for data compressionof untyped compute data in addition to 3D data. FIG. 20 illustrates amemory data compression pipeline 2000 utilized by the 3D shaders of thegraphics system, the 3D shaders illustrated as running on shader cores2010, 2012, and 2014 in SM 2005. The 3D shaders running on the shadercores 2010-2014 send memory read/write messages to the Data Port in theSM 2005. The SM 2005 further includes a data port 2020 and surface statecache 2022.

The memory data compression pipeline 2000 further includes a cachehierarchy 2030 and 3D compression/decompression unit 2032, whichprovides for compression of untyped data to be stored to the memorysubsystem 2034 and decompression of data from the memory subsystem 2034.

The shader memory surfaces are associated with a surface state that isstored in the surface state cache 2022. The surface state hasinformation about the surface such as bits per pixel, tiling mode, etc.This information is used by the 3D compression/decompression unit 2032downstream, to compress the data before sending to the memory subsystem.

For GPGPU programs running on GPU (such as deep learning and machinelearning), the data is typically “untyped” (i.e. no hardware data formatis used) and not tiled (i.e. laid out linearly in memory). In someembodiments, the 3D compression pipeline 2000 existing in the GPU may beutilized by GPGPU kernels with minimal changes to the hardware, andwithout requiring changes in the software application.

In some embodiments, during memory allocation by the software, the GPUdriver will apply heuristics to determine whether or not datacompression will be enabled for a buffer. If data compression isenabled, the driver will allocate an auxiliary buffer to store thecompression metadata, and will also allocate a surface state. In someembodiments, the compiler is to ensure that all accesses to the bufferfrom the kernel is done with the proper surface-state pointer. Thisprocess is known as “promotion” of the buffer from a stateless buffer tostateful buffer. The promotion of the buffer is performed by thedriver/compiler and is transparent to the application.

In some embodiments, for GPGPU applications, the surface state willindicate a buffer memory layout (i.e., not tiled, or structured in to2D/3D). The data format for these surfaces will depend on the buffertype. For example, for Deep Learning inference, the data type used isusually 8-bit, hence the format will be 8-bit integer. For Deep Learningtraining, the format will typically be 16-bit floats.

In some embodiments, even though the compute data surfaces have a“format” specified, the data port 2020 will not perform any formatconversion during accesses, because this is not required by theseapplications, unlike the requirements for 3D shaders. Instead, theformat information is only used for driving thecompression/decompression algorithm heuristics.

A compression data “block” is a block of cachelines (typically 2 or 4cachelines) that are compressed together by the compression unit. For a3D application, which cacheline addresses form a single “block” changesdepending on which 3D data is being compressed (e.g. color vs. Z), howpixels are hashed across shader kernels and the bits-per-pixel for thatsurface. In some embodiments, for GPGPU compression, a simple method isemployed to determine the compression block, wherein the cachelineaddresses in a block are always sequential. Deep learning programstypically have good sequential locality in accesses and this providesgood performance while keeping the hardware very simple.

A resolve operation means a surface that is compressed in memory shouldbe decompressed so that it can be consumed by the CPU (or any otheragent which does not support hardware decompression). For a 3Dapplication, there is a 3D GPU command that resolves a surface by theGPU hardware. However, no such hardware exists for the compute commandpipeline that GPGPU uses.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart to illustrate an algorithm for resolving a memorysurface in place according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, thefollowing algorithm is applied to resolve a surface “in-place” (i.e.,with no copy) by the driver for GPGPU applications:

2105: Driver creates 2 different surface states for a same memorysurface. A first surface state has compression enabled, and a secondsurface state has compression disabled. The surface states may bereferred to respectively as Surf_State_Comp (for compression enabled)and Surf_State_Uncomp. (for compression disabled).

2110: Perform GPGPU operations by the GPU. The GPGPU may includeprocessing of machine learning or deep learning data.

2115: Determine if a request to read untyped GPGPU data from systemmemory is received.

2120: If so, read by the GPU one block of data (2 or 4 Cachelines) viathe Surf_State_Comp to memory arrays (general register file arrays(GRFs), using a non-cacheable attribute.

2125: Write back the block of data as uncompressed data from GRFs tomemory via Surf_State_Uncomp, using a non-cacheable attribute.

2130: Ensure no threads other than a current thread are to access thisblock during time the block is being processed, such as by marking theblock as unavailable during processing or otherwise preventing access tosuch block.

2135: After the entire surface is written, write to the surface (CCSstate) to indicate “not-compressed”.

2140: Invalidate the applicable CCS cache element in hardware.

Evaluating Sensor Data Streams and Intelligently Down-Sampling Data Setsfor Learning Algorithms

In some embodiments, an apparatus, system, or process provides forevaluating sensor data streams and intelligently down sampling data setsfor learning algorithms. In some embodiments, the intelligent downsampling may be utilized to provide for efficient data handling formachine learning and deep learning in a Graphics processing system.

In some embodiments, the techniques may relate to Internet of Things(IoT) devices and learning applications at the edge of compute andnetworking subsystems. Embodiments may relate to sensor devices andtheir related application layers.

Data compression for machine learning and deep learning applications maybe applied to reduce the compute, memory and storage footprintrequirements of the system. Interval driven down sampling is a standardapproach wherein static intervals are identified and applied, resultingin reduced data sets. However, this conventional approach results in aclear loss in accuracy and information.

Current down sampling techniques have preset polling/filter intervals.The interval determination is a trial and error based and is manual withpotential loss of information resulting in suboptimal data samples thatcab severely compromise the analytics engine that uses this data.

Further, the use of static intervals does not take advantage of changesin the data set that might assist in improving the sampling process.Rather, a static interval essentially requires a guess as to the bestinterval to use in down sampling, even as the data stream changes overtime.

In some embodiments, intelligent down samplers allow the consumingapplications to choose between data sets at dynamically set intervalsthat has the most accurate contextual relevance. A feedback loopincorporated from within the output of the analytics algorithm that isimplemented.

In some embodiments, an optimizer is to dynamically assign a downsampling interval (or frequency/rate) by identifying a homogeneity andparameter relationship score for a data set. In some embodiments, theoptimizer is to minimize this score while determining the down samplingfrequency interval, thus enabling the interval to be established basedon the nature of the signal.

In a machine learning or deep learning system, there may be multipledata sets, such as multiple sensor streams. The data in such streams mayvary over time with regard to activity, with certain streams being lessactive and thus homogeneous in value. In some embodiments, a feedbackloop allows for adjustment in the scoring for a data set, resulting inactive change in the interval.

In some embodiments, a down sampling process thus assists with verylarge data sets, the process extracting (sampling) the most informativedata values from the set. The technique may be utilized to reduceexecution time, storage, and memory, while reducing loss of accuracycaused by down sampling. In some embodiments, the process is tunable orswitchable to allow a developer to choose how and whether to apply theactive down sampling, depending on the nature of the machine learning ordeep learning process.

FIG. 22 is an illustration of a system including an intelligent downsampling of data sets according to some embodiments. As illustrated inFIG. 22 , a processing system 2200 includes one or processors such asthe illustrated CPU 2210 (such as one of processors 102 illustrated inFIG. 1 ) and one more GPUs such as the illustrated GPU 2215 (such asgraphics processor 208 illustrated in FIG. 2 or graphics processor 300illustrated in FIG. 3 ). The processing system further includes a memory2240, wherein the memory may include storage of data for machinelearning and deep learning processing by the GPU 2215, wherein the datamay include large amounts of sampled data from multiple data streams.

In some embodiments, each sensor stream may be subject to a changenotification daemon (CND) that encompasses a rolling window with theircalculated distribution index, e.g. standard deviation. A CND is ametric that captures the changes in direction. For instance, during a 10second interval, a signal that transitions from trending +ve to −ve andvice versa, will have a transition index of 2.

Optimal window size is determined via a binary search derived from thedistribution index min and max values. Changes that exceed thedistribution index tolerance levels triggers an MCN (ML ChangeNotification). Such a notification results in the re-computation of therolling window size by evaluating data twice the current window size.

In some embodiments, a GPU 2215 includes a data sampling optimizer 2220to provide for the intelligent down sampling of the data sets by the GPU2215. In some embodiments, the optimizer may include a first component2222 to provide for evaluation and scoring of data sets regarding thehomogeneity and parameter relationship for the data, and a secondcomponent 2224 to dynamically establish a down sampling interval foreach data set based on the homogeneity and parameter relationship scorefor the data sets. In some embodiments, the optimizer 2220 provides afeedback loop to adjust the down sampling intervals as the data issampled to provide intelligent modification in the down samplingprocess. In some embodiments, the operation of the optimizer 2220 may betuned for performance, or may be switched on or off as required for aparticular application.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart to illustrate a process for intelligent downsampling of data sets according to some embodiments. In someembodiments, a process includes:

2305: Sample one or more data sets in a machine learning or deeplearning system. The data sets, which may include multiple sensor datastreams or other types of data streams, may be very large, and thusrequire down sampling to handle the volumes of data.

2310: Evaluate each data set for homogeneity and parameter relationship,such as by comparing the sampled data in each data set periodically.

2315: Determine a homogeneity and parameter relationship score for eachdata set, wherein the homogeneity and parameter relationship score maymeasure how much the data set is varying and thus how active a sensorstream or data set is at any point in time.

2320: Set a down sampling interval for each data set based on the scorefor such data set. For example, a first data set having a scoreindicating a high level of homogeneity in data is to be assigned arelatively longer sampling interval because the data set is less active,and a second data set having a score indicating a low level ofhomogeneity is to be assigned a relatively shorter sampling intervalbecause the data set is more active.

2325: Perform sampling of data sets using the established down samplingintervals. In some embodiments, the process returns to continueevaluating each data set for homogeneity and parameter relationship 2310to allow for dynamic modification of the down sampling intervals as thedata sets change over time, becoming more or less active depending onwhat the data sets are measuring or are representing.

2330: Perform machine learning or deep learning processing utilizing theintelligently down sampled data.

Compressing Models into Reduced Precision Values by Re-Training withPseudo Labels

When trained machine learning or deep learning models are deployed on,for example, edge devices (an edge device being a device providing anentry point into a system), it sometimes becomes necessary to compress(shrink) the machine learning or deep learning models such that themodels take up less resources (such as memory and compute resources).

In order to deploy trained deep learning models on edge devices such assmartphones, cameras and drones, it is sometimes necessary to compressthe models to a more compact representation. This is due to the loweramount of memory and compute capabilities available on such devices. Onepossible way to achieve compression is to use a lower precision datatype for the model parameters. However, merely quantizing the parametersto a lower precision data type (such as converting 32-bit values to8-bit values) leads to loss of accuracy when the model is used forinference.

In some embodiments, low precision versions of a high precision modelare trained using a novel training protocol. The goal of this trainingprocess is to enable the compressed model to mimic the original modelfaithfully. In this process, unlabeled data is first fed to the originalmodel to determine its response. The responses thus obtained are used totrain the compressed model, thereby allowing the compressed model tolearn to approximate the original model. As unlabeled data is abundant,the compressed model can be trained until the approximations are veryclose to the responses of the original model.

Neural networks are typically trained with learnable parametersrepresented with single precision floating point numbers. Though it isdesirable to have parameters represented with lower precision datatypes, training with lower precision parameters often results in a modelthat does not perform as well as a high precision model, in terms ofaccuracy. In some embodiments, an apparatus, system, or process makes itpossible to transfer the knowledge contained in a high precision modelto a lower precision model.

In some embodiments, transfer of knowledge is achieved using thefollowing processes:

(1) Feed unlabeled examples to the original model and perform inferenceto obtain pseudo labels for each example, and generate a pseudo-labeleddata set.

(2) Quantize the parameters to lower precision and retrain the model atlower precision using the pseudo-labeled dataset constructed in process(1).

The second process may be repeated to reduce the precision even further,leading to higher compression levels.

FIG. 24 is an illustration of compressing models into reduced precisionvalues by re-training with pseudo labels according to some embodiments.In some embodiments, unlabeled data examples 2405 are provided to anoriginal model 2410, wherein inference is performed to obtain pseudolabels and generate a pseudo-labeled data set 2415. In some embodiments,the network model 2410 is then compressed as desired (either by reducingthe number of layers or making layers less wide) to generate acompressed model 2425. Training the compressed model 2425 with theoriginal training set is likely to produce a model that exhibits lessaccuracy than the original model. However, the pseudo-labeled data set2415 may be utilized to recapture some of this loss in accuracy. In someembodiments, the compressed model 2425 is trained on the pseudo-labeleddata set 2415. Training on the larger pseudo-labeled data set 2415assists the compressed network in mirroring the original network morefaithfully.

While the unlabeled examples must be of the same type that the originalmodel was trained with (e.g. images or audio), these need not have thesame labels. For example, to transfer knowledge from an imageclassifier, any image dataset could be labeled and used. It is alsopossible to construct a new dataset from the original training setsimply by distorting the images. This is different from the typicalaugmentation technique used in neural network training because thedistortions do not have to be constrained to keep the labels intact.This allows the samples to vary widely. Even introducing a large amountof noise is acceptable as a distortion method. If the degree ofdistortion is so great that the sample is no longer recognizable andcould be mistaken for another class, the pseudo-labeling process willassign it a new label. This new label will be used in the re-trainingduring transfer of knowledge.

In some embodiments, instead of using just the pseudo-labels fortraining the compressed model, it is possible to train the compressedmodel to reproduce the entire output layer activations of the originalnetwork. In this case, the unlabeled examples are passed through theoriginal network to collect its eventual outputs (for example, in thecase of a classifier, this could be the probability values of eachclass) as a vector of values. The transfer process would involveteaching the compressed model to produce the same vector of values atits output layer. This constraint can be made more strict by encouragingequality at multiple layers instead of just the output layer.

In some embodiments, a same technique may be used to transfer knowledgeto a smaller model that uses the same data type as that of the originalmodel. In this case, the compressed model may have fewer number oflayers or fewer units in each layer, leading to fewer number ofparameters.

In some embodiments, a validation set can be used to check the accuracyof the model after knowledge transfer. This is especially useful to findout the maximum amount of compression a model will tolerate whilemaintaining acceptable accuracy.

FIG. 25 is a flowchart to illustrate a process for improving operationof a reduced network according to some embodiments. In some embodiments,a process includes:

2505: Train an original machine learning/deep learning model using anoriginal training data set.

2510: Identify the model for compression, which may be done to reducerequired resources for the model, such as memory and compute resources.The compression of the model may include reducing precision.

2515: Feed unlabeled data examples to the original model.

2520: Perform inference with the original model using the unlabeled dataexamples to obtain pseudo labels for each example.

2525: Generate pseudo-labeled data set with the data examples andgenerated pseudo labels.

2530: Compress the original model as required to generate a compressedmodel, such as by reducing the number of layers or making layers lesswide in the original model.

2535: Train the compressed model at the lower precision using thepseudo-labeled data set, thereby providing knowledge transfer to thecompressed model. In some embodiments, the training may be evaluatedusing a validation set to check the accuracy of the compressed modelafter knowledge transfer. In some embodiments, the model may be furthercompressed 2530 and trained 2535.

Policy-Based System Interface for Real-Time Autonomous System

In some embodiments, an apparatus, system, process provides a policybased system interface and definitions to handle resource constraintsand unexpected fault condition environments for autonomous systemsutilizing machine learning or deep learning. In some embodiments, apolicy based system interface operates to assist the autonomous systemto drive or otherwise continue operating instead of proceeding to totalshutdown by adopting safety, security, and important services policymanagement and handling situations as appropriate. In some embodiments,a policy based system interface is to handle scenarios related tobandwidth availability and detour cases, such as assisting unit forguidance navigation etc., based on a well-defined container model.

Current system implementations are programmed and static logic driven.Providing a policy based system resource scheduling and allocation is akey challenge for autonomous system operation. In the operation of areal-time autonomous system, including, but not limited to, anautonomous (self-driving) vehicle, the autonomous system is connectedwith a server for multiple services, such as navigation, contentstreaming, and trained data inputs. However, accesses to networks fordata may be interrupted periodically because of unreliable networkconditions and unforeseen changes. In a particular example of anautonomous vehicle, the autonomous vehicle may follow a detour thatcould not be foreseen and may result in significant changes in networkdata availability such as such as fluctuating bandwidth. Conditionsalong a known route may result in resource constraints and connectivitythat may be addressable, but an unexpected detour can in particularresult in significant and unexpected changes. However, the autonomoussystem is required to continue operating, such as in the case of anautonomous vehicle that is required to continue navigating and drivingas the network conditions change.

With an unreliable network, there may be deterioration in the bandwidthand possible losses of connection, resulting in a question of how toaddress the network issues while continuing system operation.

In some embodiments, an apparatus, system, or process provides apolicy-based system interface for a real-time autonomous system toenable continued operation in changing conditions, and avoiding shutdown of the most important functions of the autonomous system. In someembodiments, the policy based system interface allows smooth systemoperation during unexpected slow response in server, low networkbandwidth, sudden detours, reaching out new re-routing techniques, andother similar conditions.

In some embodiments, a policy based system interface provides for thefollowing tasks on a real-time basis:

(1) Prioritizing work based on bandwidth and compute constraints.

(2) Applying compression based on the bandwidth and compute constraints.For example, a system may utilize lower quality/more lossy compressionin a faster rate, such as in a burst of data, if this works in aconstrained environment to take advantage of the communicationcapabilities.

(3) Scaling of the hardware for the autonomous system on a real-timebasis.

In some embodiments, the overarching issue regards a network that is notreliable, and thus how to back up operation. The network is providingtraining data, and the system should intelligently handle bad situationsthat are not fully foreseeable.

FIG. 26 is an illustration of an autonomous system providing policymanagement for addressing unreliable network conditions according tosome embodiments. In some embodiments, an autonomous system 2600,including, but not limited to, an autonomous vehicle, is connected toone or more networks, such as a dedicated data center 2650 and a cloudconnected server 2660, wherein the network connections have unreliablenetwork bandwidth because of issues including changes in locations andenvironmental conditions.

In some embodiments, the autonomous system 2600 may include on demandservices 2605 such as video, music, radio, and other services (such asservices of an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) system, wherein suchservices are generally not essential to vehicle operation. Asillustrated, the autonomous system 2600 further includes a navigationsystem 2610 (which is required for operation), policy management 2615,forecasting and analyzing 2620 (including forecasting network conditionsand analyzing current network bandwidth), a data classifier for asupervised data model 2625, and a supervised and trained model 2630. Insome embodiments, a training set may include, but is not limited to,data that is specifically directed to Graphics, such as mapping orplacing other item on a screen. In some embodiments, Graphics data mayinclude 3D processing and GPGPU compute.

As illustrated in FIG. 26 , there are unreliable network connections tobackend data in the dedicated data center 2650 and to the cloudconnected server 2660 along the route of the autonomous system. In someembodiments, the automated system 2600 includes GPU compute operation,including the use of the GPU for parallel operation in analysis, and theneed to transfer the training set via the unreliable network bandwidth.

An autonomous system requires the supervised training data and model totrain the system to make decision making. It is important to havededicated connectivity and resource access. However, outside systemreliability cannot be guaranteed due to various reasons, includingsudden system failures. Autonomous systems like self-driving car cannotafford system or data delay.

In some embodiments, the autonomous system 2600 includes a policy-basedsystem to provide the best overall user experience. With the cloud toautonomous system connection, the autonomous system 2600 has machinelearning capability to perform real-time analysis for navigation, LIDAR(Light Detection and Ranging), and other functions. However, there arebandwidth constraints related to the cloud connection, with limitedbandwidth in unreliable network, potential for loss of data, largeamounts of training data to be received, and data transfers in bothdirections. In particular, there is visual/graphics data to address,with transfer to the cloud being limited.

In general, the cases to be addressed are:

(1) Limited bandwidth in the network connections, but with good computecapability.

(2) Limited bandwidth together with compute constraints because ofmultiple compute requirements.

In some embodiments, the GPU hardware of the autonomous vehicle is toidentify which items are requested or needed in operation of theautonomous system 2600, and to determine which are the critical itemsthat need to be transferred within the constraints. In some embodiments,the autonomous system 2600 and the server 2650/2660 are to utilize smartcompression, which may be in both directions between the client andserver, based on an understanding of the requested tasks and theexisting constraints.

In some embodiments, the operation of the autonomous system 2600 mayfurther include a crowd-sourced capability utilizing the cloud-connectedserver 2660. In a particular implementation, the autonomous system 2600may be an autonomous vehicle including a crowd sourced capability acrossmany ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) systems with one or morecloud servers that can assist with analytics on the cloud, thusproviding assistance for efficient compression decisions and enablingfuture improvements in system operations in limited bandwidth andcompute conditions.

In some embodiments, policy management for a real-time autonomous systemincludes:

(1) Policy decisions based at least in part on network bandwidth, whichmay include use of a communication channel for important data.

(2) Preparing a service order list and usage model for the autonomoussystem.

(3) Supervised and unsupervised data model and training setavailability.

(4) Performing compression model and bandwidth requirement estimationwhen there is new data set availability.

(5) Categorizing the container of the data set, compressing the datamodel, and estimating the bandwidth requirement.

(6) Generating service and model set based on availability and servernetwork access.

(7) Applying a local data resource when unexpected scenarios such asdetours and low bandwidth data (wherein the local data resource mayinclude navigation and route prediction, cloud based information priormodel retrieval, support for live real time analysis support, etc.)

(8) Apply security and data bandwidth efficiency with quality of service(QoS) and quality of experience (QoE) in mind.

FIG. 27 is an illustration of policy-based system interface techniquesfor real-time autonomous systems according to some embodiments. In someembodiments, a system 2700 includes a client such as an autonomousvehicle 2760 in communication with a cloud server 2710 over anunreliable network 2750. As illustrated in FIG. 27 , the cloud server2710 includes a data model and trained data set 2715, and a bandwidthmoderator 2720 to control the relative usage of the network bandwidth.The cloud capability may result in throttling what tasks can beperformed. In some embodiments, the client 2760 includes GPU hardwarecritical trainset indicators 2765, and compression based on the hardwareindicator requirements.

In some embodiments, efficient compression is provided in networkoperations for an autonomous system based on the constraints inbandwidth and/or compute capability. In some embodiments, the operationmay include a reward based algorithm providing more weight to a correctsolution, moving in this direction in operation.

In some embodiments, compression is applied in container-based operationof the autonomous vehicle or other client 2760. In machine learning,there may be multiple containers with multiple applications in eachcontainer (for example color, GPUPU, other). Each container is used inthe cloud as a work element run in isolation from the other containers.

In some embodiments, the containers are based on the client's needs,with each set of operations running in different containers separatelyfrom each other. For a system such as an autonomous vehicle 2760, thecontainers may be safety, vehicle operation, user data, and others. Insome embodiments, with limitations in bandwidth and/or computecapability, the system may modify the type of compression for thecontainers based on policies for the system. In some embodiments, thecontainers for an autonomous system may be dynamically spawned andscaled up or down as needed. Containers can be separate trustedenvironments.

In some embodiments, a proposed algorithm may consider feedback controlbased on the GPU or utilize machine learning hardware indicators todetermine the data compression under various resource availability (suchas network bandwidth) at different segmentation levels. The feedbackindicators from hardware may include whether the training set requiresany input training set at the hardware level. Typical machine learninghardware can compress at various graphics levels, such as 3D bufferlevel, color component level, etc. The data compression may bedetermined based on network and reliable network cases.

FIG. 28 is an illustration of containers for a policy-based systeminterface for real-time autonomous system according to some embodiments.Container based compression is a technique to utilize the hardware levelfeature set or requirements to be put as a model where it can fit andthen compress them in single to-level container to cover various usecases. As illustrated in FIG. 28 , containers in a particular system mayinclude the following:

Container 1 Color container 2800 including first application 2D colorelement 2810; second application 3D buffer/texture 2812; and thirdapplication map and route train model 2814.

Container 2 GPGPU 2820 including first application GPGPU machinelearning kernel 2830; second application mid thread independent stack2832; and third application any inference or prediction model 2834.

Container 3 2840 including image color segment 2850; image encodesegment 2852; and image codec throughput 2854.

In some embodiments, container based compression technique is appliedusing the control feedback from hardware based on its mandatory inputrequirement for training set, and recovering pointers. Color componenthardware requirements for a training set can be put together into anyother color component involved in the use case such as streaming videoelement or map or stream photo. Putting them as single container and usethose to compress at server and decompress at client based on scenariosand usability.

The top level container set brings multiple combinations or similar setsof hardware specific data in certain unreliable resource scenarios andavoid any disconnection between the servers and client in thosescenarios. In some embodiments, any of the container elements are basedon machine learning hardware (GPGPU) and specialized ASIC(Application-Specific Integrated Circuit).

FIG. 29 is a flowchart to illustrate a process for a policy-based systeminterface according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, a processincludes:

2905: Perform policy management in an autonomous system. The autonomoussystem may include but is not limited to an autonomous vehicle. Thepolicy management may include processing with one or more GPUs.

2910: Check each resource of the autonomous system and determine ifeverything is acceptable for the resource. The resources of theautonomous system depend on the nature of the system, wherein anautonomous vehicle may include resources such as navigation, safety, andentertainment services. Each resource may involve or include usage of anunreliable network connection, which may result in reduced bandwidthand/or connection issues. If resource operations are acceptable, theprocess continues with normal operations 2935.

2915: If resource operations are not acceptable, the autonomous systemmay apply a resource constraint policy to reduce the unnecessary usageof any resource. For example, applying a resource constraint policy mayinclude reducing lower priority resource operations (such asentertainment) to maintain network bandwidth or compute capability forhigher priority resources (such as safety and navigation).

2920: Identify any emergency or detour, wherein there is no map or newtrain model. For example, an autonomous vehicle may be required tofollow an unexpected detour path for which there is no current data.

2925: If applicable, the process may include retrieving data from anemergency supporting network.

2930: Utilize container (such as container for cloud network) andcompressor to apply compression based on the bandwidth and computeconstraints for the system. In a first example, a container for lowerpriority applications may be subjected to more compression to reducedata traffic. In a second example, to address bandwidth limitations thatmay, for example, allow bursts of data in when there is networkavailability, a lossy compression of safety data may be applied toenable the transfer of data bursts when there is sufficient bandwidthfor transmission or reception of data.

In some embodiments, an autonomous system may further include thefollowing elements to assist in addressing limitations in resources:

Dynamically scaling of hardware to address the needs and constraints ina system. The dynamic scaling of hardware may include the GPU to scaleexecution units that are directed to certain data processing, an FPGA(Field Programmable Gate Array) or other reprogrammable unit todynamically scale the hardware as required for needed processing, orother hardware scaling.

Dynamically scaling the number of containers (such as the containersillustrated in FIG. 28 ) up or down as required to provide moreeffective operation. For example, in certain operations one or moreadditional containers may be created to allow transfer of applications,such as applications for essential resources, and thus to allowmodification in the compression applied in each container to address thecurrent resource limitations.

User prioritization and right scaling on both the server side and theclient side, such as in utilizing burst communication as available if,for example, network bandwidth is only available for limited timeperiods during which bursts of data may be transmitted or received. Insome embodiments, handshake communication between client and server maybe utilized to determine the specific communications to be provided,such as what bandwidth will available to each client.

Vary server operation between different clients, with multiple sessionsdepending on each client's constraints.

With minimal bandwidth and compute, generate crowd source solution usingreward based weighting. The crowd sourcing may include, for example, theoperation of multiple autonomous vehicles in limited network bandwidthconditions.

Apply auditing to chosen solutions. Certain functional elements, such assafety for an autonomous vehicle, may be auditable. Compression is lossygenerally, but with functional safety requirements, making the dataauditable and public (such as using blockchain or other secure recordtechnology) to allow audit trails collected in the autonomous vehicleand in the cloud to then analyze and use to improve operation. Accuracyis important in operations such as safety, and lossy compression canresult in accuracy loss. For this reason, maintaining records forauditing may allow further avoidance of issues that arise because ofcertain responses to limited resources.

Provide hints regarding data to affect compression operation, and thuscompress efficiently based on prioritization. In an example, a systemmay identify a particular region of interest in a screen display for anautonomous system (such as a portion of the screen display that containsa safety element) and provide optimization based on this region ofinterest. For example, a large 4K screen display may be provided in anautonomous vehicle, but only certain portions of the screen display arehighly important for issues such as safety. In some embodiments, thesystem may compress the rest of the screen (directed to less importantinformation) based on the provided hint regarding regions of interest.

Current parallel graphics data processing includes systems and methodsdeveloped to perform specific operations on graphics data such as, forexample, linear interpolation, tessellation, rasterization, texturemapping, depth testing, etc. Traditionally, graphics processors usedfixed function computational units to process graphics data; however,more recently, portions of graphics processors have been madeprogrammable, enabling such processors to support a wider variety ofoperations for processing vertex and fragment data.

To further increase performance, graphics processors typically implementprocessing techniques such as pipelining that attempt to process, inparallel, as much graphics data as possible throughout the differentparts of the graphics pipeline. Parallel graphics processors with singleinstruction, multiple thread (SIMT) architectures are designed tomaximize the amount of parallel processing in the graphics pipeline. Inan SIMT architecture, groups of parallel threads attempt to executeprogram instructions synchronously together as often as possible toincrease processing efficiency. A general overview of software andhardware for SIMT architectures can be found in Shane Cook, CUDAProgramming Chapter 3, pages 37-51 (2013).

In some embodiments, a graphics processing unit (GPU) is communicativelycoupled to host/processor cores to accelerate graphics operations,machine-learning operations, pattern analysis operations, and variousgeneral-purpose GPU (GPGPU) functions. The GPU may be communicativelycoupled to the host processor/cores over a bus or another interconnect(e.g., a high-speed interconnect such as PCIe or NVLink). In otherembodiments, the GPU may be integrated on the same package or chip asthe cores and communicatively coupled to the cores over an internalprocessor bus/interconnect (i.e., internal to the package or chip).Regardless of the manner in which the GPU is connected, the processorcores may allocate work to the GPU in the form of sequences ofcommands/instructions contained in a work descriptor. The GPU then usesdedicated circuitry/logic for efficiently processing thesecommands/instructions.

In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth toprovide a more thorough understanding. However, it will be apparent toone of skill in the art that the embodiments described herein may bepracticed without one or more of these specific details. In otherinstances, well-known features have not been described to avoidobscuring the details of the present embodiments.

System Overview

FIG. 30 is a block diagram illustrating a computing system 3000configured to implement one or more aspects of the embodiments describedherein. The computing system 3000 includes a processing subsystem 3001having one or more processor(s) 3002 and a system memory 3004communicating via an interconnection path that may include a memory hub3005. The memory hub 3005 may be a separate component within a chip setcomponent or may be integrated within the one or more processor(s) 3002.The memory hub 3005 couples with an I/O subsystem 3011 via acommunication link 3006. The I/O subsystem 3011 includes an I/O hub 3007that can enable the computing system 3000 to receive input from one ormore input device(s) 3008. Additionally, the I/O hub 3007 can enable adisplay controller, which may be included in the one or moreprocessor(s) 3002, to provide outputs to one or more display device(s)3010A. In one embodiment the one or more display device(s) 3010A coupledwith the I/O hub 3007 can include a local, internal, or embedded displaydevice.

In one embodiment the processing subsystem 3001 includes one or moreparallel processor(s) 3012 coupled to memory hub 3005 via a bus or othercommunication link 3013. The communication link 3013 may be one of anynumber of standards based communication link technologies or protocols,such as, but not limited to PCI Express, or may be a vendor specificcommunications interface or communications fabric. In one embodiment theone or more parallel processor(s) 3012 form a computationally focusedparallel or vector processing system that an include a large number ofprocessing cores and/or processing clusters, such as a many integratedcore (MIC) processor. In one embodiment the one or more parallelprocessor(s) 3012 form a graphics processing subsystem that can outputpixels to one of the one or more display device(s) 3010A coupled via theI/O Hub 3007. The one or more parallel processor(s) 3012 can alsoinclude a display controller and display interface (not shown) to enablea direct connection to one or more display device(s) 3010B.

Within the I/O subsystem 3011, a system storage unit 3014 can connect tothe I/O hub 3007 to provide a storage mechanism for the computing system3000. An I/O switch 3016 can be used to provide an interface mechanismto enable connections between the I/O hub 3007 and other components,such as a network adapter 3018 and/or wireless network adapter 3019 thatmay be integrated into the platform, and various other devices that canbe added via one or more add-in device(s) 3020. The network adapter 3018can be an Ethernet adapter or another wired network adapter. Thewireless network adapter 3019 can include one or more of a Wi-Fi,Bluetooth, near field communication (NFC), or other network device thatincludes one or more wireless radios.

The computing system 3000 can include other components not explicitlyshown, including USB or other port connections, optical storage drives,video capture devices, and the like, may also be connected to the I/Ohub 3007. Communication paths interconnecting the various components inFIG. 30 may be implemented using any suitable protocols, such as PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect) based protocols (e.g., PCI-Express),or any other bus or point-to-point communication interfaces and/orprotocol(s), such as the NV-Link high-speed interconnect, orinterconnect protocols known in the art.

In one embodiment, the one or more parallel processor(s) 3012incorporate circuitry optimized for graphics and video processing,including, for example, video output circuitry, and constitutes agraphics processing unit (GPU). In another embodiment, the one or moreparallel processor(s) 3012 incorporate circuitry optimized for generalpurpose processing, while preserving the underlying computationalarchitecture, described in greater detail herein. In yet anotherembodiment, components of the computing system 3000 may be integratedwith one or more other system elements on a single integrated circuit.For example, the one or more parallel processor(s), 3012 memory hub3005, processor(s) 3002, and I/O hub 3007 can be integrated into asystem on chip (SoC) integrated circuit. Alternatively, the componentsof the computing system 3000 can be integrated into a single package toform a system in package (SIP) configuration. In one embodiment at leasta portion of the components of the computing system 3000 can beintegrated into a multi-chip module (MCM), which can be interconnectedwith other multi-chip modules into a modular computing system.

It will be appreciated that the computing system 3000 shown herein isillustrative and that variations and modifications are possible. Theconnection topology, including the number and arrangement of bridges,the number of processor(s) 3002, and the number of parallel processor(s)3012, may be modified as desired. For instance, in some embodiments,system memory 3004 is connected to the processor(s) 3002 directly ratherthan through a bridge, while other devices communicate with systemmemory 3004 via the memory hub 3005 and the processor(s) 3002. In otheralternative topologies, the parallel processor(s) 3012 are connected tothe I/O hub 3007 or directly to one of the one or more processor(s)3002, rather than to the memory hub 3005. In other embodiments, the I/Ohub 3007 and memory hub 3005 may be integrated into a single chip. Someembodiments may include two or more sets of processor(s) 3002 attachedvia multiple sockets, which can couple with two or more instances of theparallel processor(s) 3012.

Some of the particular components shown herein are optional and may notbe included in all implementations of the computing system 3000. Forexample, any number of add-in cards or peripherals may be supported, orsome components may be eliminated. Furthermore, some architectures mayuse different terminology for components similar to those illustrated inFIG. 30 . For example, the memory hub 3005 may be referred to as aNorthbridge in some architectures, while the I/O hub 3007 may bereferred to as a Southbridge.

FIG. 31A illustrates a parallel processor 3100, according to anembodiment. The various components of the parallel processor 3100 may beimplemented using one or more integrated circuit devices, such asprogrammable processors, application specific integrated circuits(ASICs), or field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). The illustratedparallel processor 3100 is a variant of the one or more parallelprocessor(s) 3012 shown in FIG. 30 , according to an embodiment.

In one embodiment the parallel processor 3100 includes a parallelprocessing unit 3102. The parallel processing unit includes an I/O unit3104 that enables communication with other devices, including otherinstances of the parallel processing unit 3102. The I/O unit 3104 may bedirectly connected to other devices. In one embodiment the I/O unit 3104connects with other devices via the use of a hub or switch interface,such as memory hub 3005. The connections between the memory hub 3005 andthe I/O unit 3104 form a communication link 3013. Within the parallelprocessing unit 3102, the I/O unit 3104 connects with a host interface3106 and a memory crossbar 3116, where the host interface 3106 receivescommands directed to performing processing operations and the memorycrossbar 3116 receives commands directed to performing memoryoperations.

When the host interface 3106 receives a command buffer via the I/O unit3104, the host interface 3106 can direct work operations to performthose commands to a front end 3108. In one embodiment the front end 3108couples with a scheduler 3110, which is configured to distributecommands or other work items to a processing cluster array 3112. In oneembodiment the scheduler 3110 ensures that the processing cluster array3112 is properly configured and in a valid state before tasks aredistributed to the processing clusters of the processing cluster array3112. In one embodiment the scheduler 3110 is implemented via firmwarelogic executing on a microcontroller. The microcontroller implementedscheduler 3110 is configurable to perform complex scheduling and workdistribution operations at coarse and fine granularity, enabling rapidpreemption and context switching of threads executing on the processingarray 3112. In one embodiment, the host software can prove workloads forscheduling on the processing array 3112 via one of multiple graphicsprocessing doorbells. The workloads can then be automaticallydistributed across the processing array 3112 by the scheduler 3110 logicwithin the scheduler microcontroller.

The processing cluster array 3112 can include up to “N” processingclusters (e.g., cluster 3114A, cluster 3114B, through cluster 3114N).Each cluster 3114A-3114N of the processing cluster array 3112 canexecute a large number of concurrent threads. The scheduler 3110 canallocate work to the clusters 3114A-3114N of the processing clusterarray 3112 using various scheduling and/or work distribution algorithms,which may vary depending on the workload arising for each type ofprogram or computation. The scheduling can be handled dynamically by thescheduler 3110, or can be assisted in part by compiler logic duringcompilation of program logic configured for execution by the processingcluster array 3112. In one embodiment, different clusters 3114A-3114N ofthe processing cluster array 3112 can be allocated for processingdifferent types of programs or for performing different types ofcomputations.

The processing cluster array 3112 can be configured to perform varioustypes of parallel processing operations. In one embodiment theprocessing cluster array 3112 is configured to perform general-purposeparallel compute operations. For example, the processing cluster array3112 can include logic to execute processing tasks including filteringof video and/or audio data, performing modeling operations, includingphysics operations, and performing data transformations.

In one embodiment the processing cluster array 3112 is configured toperform parallel graphics processing operations. In embodiments in whichthe parallel processor 3100 is configured to perform graphics processingoperations, the processing cluster array 3112 can include additionallogic to support the execution of such graphics processing operations,including, but not limited to texture sampling logic to perform textureoperations, as well as tessellation logic and other vertex processinglogic. Additionally, the processing cluster array 3112 can be configuredto execute graphics processing related shader programs such as, but notlimited to vertex shaders, tessellation shaders, geometry shaders, andpixel shaders. The parallel processing unit 3102 can transfer data fromsystem memory via the I/O unit 3104 for processing. During processingthe transferred data can be stored to on-chip memory (e.g., parallelprocessor memory 3122) during processing, then written back to systemmemory.

In one embodiment, when the parallel processing unit 3102 is used toperform graphics processing, the scheduler 3110 can be configured todivide the processing workload into approximately equal sized tasks, tobetter enable distribution of the graphics processing operations tomultiple clusters 3114A-3114N of the processing cluster array 3112. Insome embodiments, portions of the processing cluster array 3112 can beconfigured to perform different types of processing. For example, afirst portion may be configured to perform vertex shading and topologygeneration, a second portion may be configured to perform tessellationand geometry shading, and a third portion may be configured to performpixel shading or other screen space operations, to produce a renderedimage for display. Intermediate data produced by one or more of theclusters 3114A-3114N may be stored in buffers to allow the intermediatedata to be transmitted between clusters 3114A-3114N for furtherprocessing.

During operation, the processing cluster array 3112 can receiveprocessing tasks to be executed via the scheduler 3110, which receivescommands defining processing tasks from front end 3108. For graphicsprocessing operations, processing tasks can include indices of data tobe processed, e.g., surface (patch) data, primitive data, vertex data,and/or pixel data, as well as state parameters and commands defining howthe data is to be processed (e.g., what program is to be executed). Thescheduler 3110 may be configured to fetch the indices corresponding tothe tasks or may receive the indices from the front end 3108. The frontend 3108 can be configured to ensure the processing cluster array 3112is configured to a valid state before the workload specified by incomingcommand buffers (e.g., batch-buffers, push buffers, etc.) is initiated.

Each of the one or more instances of the parallel processing unit 3102can couple with parallel processor memory 3122. The parallel processormemory 3122 can be accessed via the memory crossbar 3116, which canreceive memory requests from the processing cluster array 3112 as wellas the I/O unit 3104. The memory crossbar 3116 can access the parallelprocessor memory 3122 via a memory interface 3118. The memory interface3118 can include multiple partition units (e.g., partition unit 3120A,partition unit 3120B, through partition unit 3120N) that can each coupleto a portion (e.g., memory unit) of parallel processor memory 3122. Inone implementation, the number of partition units 3120A-3120N isconfigured to be equal to the number of memory units, such that a firstpartition unit 3120A has a corresponding first memory unit 3124A, asecond partition unit 3120B has a corresponding memory unit 3124B, andan Nth partition unit 3120N has a corresponding Nth memory unit 3124N.In other embodiments, the number of partition units 3120A-3120N may notbe equal to the number of memory devices.

In various embodiments, the memory units 3124A-3124N can include varioustypes of memory devices, including dynamic random-access memory (DRAM)or graphics random access memory, such as synchronous graphics randomaccess memory (SGRAM), including graphics double data rate (GDDR)memory. In one embodiment, the memory units 3124A-3124N may also include3D stacked memory, including but not limited to high bandwidth memory(HBM). Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the specificimplementation of the memory units 3124A-3124N can vary, and can beselected from one of various conventional designs. Render targets, suchas frame buffers or texture maps may be stored across the memory units3124A-3124N, allowing partition units 3120A-3120N to write portions ofeach render target in parallel to efficiently use the availablebandwidth of parallel processor memory 3122. In some embodiments, alocal instance of the parallel processor memory 3122 may be excluded infavor of a unified memory design that utilizes system memory inconjunction with local cache memory.

In one embodiment, any one of the clusters 3114A-3114N of the processingcluster array 3112 can process data that will be written to any of thememory units 3124A-3124N within parallel processor memory 3122. Thememory crossbar 3116 can be configured to transfer the output of eachcluster 3114A-3114N to any partition unit 3120A-3120N or to anothercluster 3114A-3114N, which can perform additional processing operationson the output. Each cluster 3114A-3114N can communicate with the memoryinterface 3118 through the memory crossbar 3116 to read from or write tovarious external memory devices. In one embodiment the memory crossbar3116 has a connection to the memory interface 3118 to communicate withthe I/O unit 3104, as well as a connection to a local instance of theparallel processor memory 3122, enabling the processing units within thedifferent processing clusters 3114A-3114N to communicate with systemmemory or other memory that is not local to the parallel processing unit3102. In one embodiment the memory crossbar 3116 can use virtualchannels to separate traffic streams between the clusters 3114A-3114Nand the partition units 3120A-3120N.

While a single instance of the parallel processing unit 3102 isillustrated within the parallel processor 3100, any number of instancesof the parallel processing unit 3102 can be included. For example,multiple instances of the parallel processing unit 3102 can be providedon a single add-in card, or multiple add-in cards can be interconnected.The different instances of the parallel processing unit 3102 can beconfigured to inter-operate even if the different instances havedifferent numbers of processing cores, different amounts of localparallel processor memory, and/or other configuration differences. Forexample, in one embodiment some instances of the parallel processingunit 3102 can include higher precision floating point units relative toother instances. Systems incorporating one or more instances of theparallel processing unit 3102 or the parallel processor 3100 can beimplemented in a variety of configurations and form factors, includingbut not limited to desktop, laptop, or handheld personal computers,servers, workstations, game consoles, and/or embedded systems.

FIG. 31B is a block diagram of a partition unit 3120, according to anembodiment. In one embodiment the partition unit 3120 is an instance ofone of the partition units 3120A-3120N of FIG. 31A. As illustrated, thepartition unit 3120 includes an L2 cache 3121, a frame buffer interface3125, and a ROP 3126 (raster operations unit). The L2 cache 3121 is aread/write cache that is configured to perform load and store operationsreceived from the memory crossbar 3116 and ROP 3126. Read misses andurgent write-back requests are output by L2 cache 3121 to frame bufferinterface 3125 for processing. Updates can also be sent to the framebuffer via the frame buffer interface 3125 for processing. In oneembodiment the frame buffer interface 3125 interfaces with one of thememory units in parallel processor memory, such as the memory units3124A-3124N of FIG. 31 (e.g., within parallel processor memory 3122).

In graphics applications, the ROP 3126 is a processing unit thatperforms raster operations such as stencil, z test, blending, and thelike. The ROP 3126 then outputs processed graphics data that is storedin graphics memory. In some embodiments the ROP 3126 includescompression logic to compress depth or color data that is written tomemory and decompress depth or color data that is read from memory. Thecompression logic can be lossless compression logic that makes use ofone or more of multiple compression algorithms. The type of compressionthat is performed by the ROP 3126 can vary based on the statisticalcharacteristics of the data to be compressed. For example, in oneembodiment, delta color compression is performed on depth and color dataon a per-tile basis.

In some embodiments, the ROP 3126 is included within each processingcluster (e.g., cluster 3114A-3114N of FIG. 31 ) instead of within thepartition unit 3120. In such embodiment, read and write requests forpixel data are transmitted over the memory crossbar 3116 instead ofpixel fragment data. The processed graphics data may be displayed on adisplay device, such as one of the one or more display device(s) 3010 ofFIG. 30 , routed for further processing by the processor(s) 3002, orrouted for further processing by one of the processing entities withinthe parallel processor 3100 of FIG. 31A.

FIG. 31C is a block diagram of a processing cluster 3114 within aparallel processing unit, according to an embodiment. In one embodiment,the processing cluster is an instance of one of the processing clusters3114A-3114N of FIG. 31 . The processing cluster 3114 can be configuredto execute many threads in parallel, where the term “thread” refers toan instance of a particular program executing on a particular set ofinput data. In some embodiments, single-instruction, multiple-data(SIMD) instruction issue techniques are used to support parallelexecution of a large number of threads without providing multipleindependent instruction units. In other embodiments, single-instruction,multiple-thread (SIMT) techniques are used to support parallel executionof a large number of generally synchronized threads, using a commoninstruction unit configured to issue instructions to a set of processingengines within each one of the processing clusters. Unlike a SIMDexecution regime, where all processing engines typically executeidentical instructions, SIMT execution allows different threads to morereadily follow divergent execution paths through a given thread program.Persons skilled in the art will understand that a SIMD processing regimerepresents a functional subset of a SIMT processing regime.

Operation of the processing cluster 3114 can be controlled via apipeline manager 3132 that distributes processing tasks to SIMT parallelprocessors. The pipeline manager 3132 receives instructions from thescheduler 3110 of FIG. 31 and manages execution of those instructionsvia a graphics multiprocessor 3134 and/or a texture unit 3136. Theillustrated graphics multiprocessor 3134 is an exemplary instance of aSIMT parallel processor. However, various types of SIMT parallelprocessors of differing architectures may be included within theprocessing cluster 3114. One or more instances of the graphicsmultiprocessor 3134 can be included within a processing cluster 3114.The graphics multiprocessor 3134 can process data and a data crossbar3140 can be used to distribute the processed data to one of multiplepossible destinations, including other shader units. The pipelinemanager 3132 can facilitate the distribution of processed data byspecifying destinations for processed data to be distributed vis thedata crossbar 3140.

Each graphics multiprocessor 3134 within the processing cluster 3114 caninclude an identical set of functional execution logic (e.g., arithmeticlogic units, load-store units, etc.). The functional execution logic canbe configured in a pipelined manner in which new instructions can beissued before previous instructions are complete. The functionalexecution logic supports a variety of operations including integer andfloating-point arithmetic, comparison operations, Boolean operations,bit-shifting, and computation of various algebraic functions. In oneembodiment the same functional-unit hardware can be leveraged to performdifferent operations and any combination of functional units may bepresent.

The instructions transmitted to the processing cluster 3114 constitutesa thread. A set of threads executing across the set of parallelprocessing engines is a thread group. A thread group executes the sameprogram on different input data. Each thread within a thread group canbe assigned to a different processing engine within a graphicsmultiprocessor 3134. A thread group may include fewer threads than thenumber of processing engines within the graphics multiprocessor 3134.When a thread group includes fewer threads than the number of processingengines, one or more of the processing engines may be idle during cyclesin which that thread group is being processed. A thread group may alsoinclude more threads than the number of processing engines within thegraphics multiprocessor 3134. When the thread group includes morethreads than the number of processing engines within the graphicsmultiprocessor 3134, processing can be performed over consecutive clockcycles. In one embodiment multiple thread groups can be executedconcurrently on a graphics multiprocessor 3134.

In one embodiment the graphics multiprocessor 3134 includes an internalcache memory to perform load and store operations. In one embodiment,the graphics multiprocessor 3134 can forego an internal cache and use acache memory (e.g., L1 cache 3148) within the processing cluster 3114.Each graphics multiprocessor 3134 also has access to L2 caches withinthe partition units (e.g., partition units 3120A-3120N of FIG. 31 ) thatare shared among all processing clusters 3114 and may be used totransfer data between threads. The graphics multiprocessor 3134 may alsoaccess off-chip global memory, which can include one or more of localparallel processor memory and/or system memory. Any memory external tothe parallel processing unit 3102 may be used as global memory.Embodiments in which the processing cluster 3114 includes multipleinstances of the graphics multiprocessor 3134 can share commoninstructions and data, which may be stored in the L1 cache 3148.

Each processing cluster 3114 may include an MMU 3145 (memory managementunit) that is configured to map virtual addresses into physicaladdresses. In other embodiments, one or more instances of the MMU 3145may reside within the memory interface 3118 of FIG. 31 . The MMU 3145includes a set of page table entries (PTEs) used to map a virtualaddress to a physical address of a tile and optionally a cache lineindex. The MMU 3145 may include address translation lookaside buffers(TLB) or caches that may reside within the graphics multiprocessor 3134or the L1 cache or processing cluster 3114. The physical address isprocessed to distribute surface data access locality to allow efficientrequest interleaving among partition units. The cache line index may beused to determine whether a request for a cache line is a hit or miss.

In graphics and computing applications, a processing cluster 3114 may beconfigured such that each graphics multiprocessor 3134 is coupled to atexture unit 3136 for performing texture mapping operations, e.g.,determining texture sample positions, reading texture data, andfiltering the texture data. Texture data is read from an internaltexture L1 cache (not shown) or in some embodiments from the L1 cachewithin graphics multiprocessor 3134 and is fetched from an L2 cache,local parallel processor memory, or system memory, as needed. Eachgraphics multiprocessor 3134 outputs processed tasks to the datacrossbar 3140 to provide the processed task to another processingcluster 3114 for further processing or to store the processed task in anL2 cache, local parallel processor memory, or system memory via thememory crossbar 3116. A preROP 3142 (pre-raster operations unit) isconfigured to receive data from graphics multiprocessor 3134, directdata to ROP units, which may be located with partition units asdescribed herein (e.g., partition units 3120A-3120N of FIG. 31 ). ThepreROP 3142 unit can perform optimizations for color blending, organizepixel color data, and perform address translations.

It will be appreciated that the core architecture described herein isillustrative and that variations and modifications are possible. Anynumber of processing units, e.g., graphics multiprocessor 3134, textureunits 3136, preROPs 3142, etc., may be included within a processingcluster 3114. Further, while only one processing cluster 3114 is shown,a parallel processing unit as described herein may include any number ofinstances of the processing cluster 3114. In one embodiment, eachprocessing cluster 3114 can be configured to operate independently ofother processing clusters 3114 using separate and distinct processingunits, L1 caches, etc.

FIG. 31D shows a graphics multiprocessor 3134, according to oneembodiment. In such embodiment, the graphics multiprocessor 3134 coupleswith the pipeline manager 3132 of the processing cluster 3114. Thegraphics multiprocessor 3134 has an execution pipeline including but notlimited to an instruction cache 3152, an instruction unit 3154, anaddress mapping unit 3156, a register file 3158, one or more generalpurpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) cores 3162, and one or moreload/store units 3166. The GPGPU cores 3162 and load/store units 3166are coupled with cache memory 3172 and shared memory 3170 via a memoryand cache interconnect 3168.

In one embodiment, the instruction cache 3152 receives a stream ofinstructions to execute from the pipeline manager 3132. The instructionsare cached in the instruction cache 3152 and dispatched for execution bythe instruction unit 3154. The instruction unit 3154 can dispatchinstructions as thread groups (e.g., warps), with each thread of thethread group assigned to a different execution unit within GPGPU core3162. An instruction can access any of a local, shared, or globaladdress space by specifying an address within a unified address space.The address mapping unit 3156 can be used to translate addresses in theunified address space into a distinct memory address that can beaccessed by the load/store units 3166.

The register file 3158 provides a set of registers for the functionalunits of the graphics multiprocessor 3134. The register file 3158provides temporary storage for operands connected to the data paths ofthe functional units (e.g., GPGPU cores 3162, load/store units 3166) ofthe graphics multiprocessor 3134. In one embodiment, the register file3158 is divided between each of the functional units such that eachfunctional unit is allocated a dedicated portion of the register file3158. In one embodiment, the register file 3158 is divided between thedifferent warps being executed by the graphics multiprocessor 3134.

The GPGPU cores 3162 can each include floating point units (FPUs) and/orinteger arithmetic logic units (ALUs) that are used to executeinstructions of the graphics multiprocessor 3134. The GPGPU cores 3162can be similar in architecture or can differ in architecture, accordingto embodiments. For example, in one embodiment, a first portion of theGPGPU cores 3162 include a single precision FPU and an integer ALU whilea second portion of the GPGPU cores include a double precision FPU. Inone embodiment, the FPUs can implement the IEEE 754-2008 standard forfloating point arithmetic or enable variable precision floating pointarithmetic. The graphics multiprocessor 3134 can additionally includeone or more fixed function or special function units to perform specificfunctions such as copy rectangle or pixel blending operations. In oneembodiment one or more of the GPGPU cores can also include fixed orspecial function logic.

In one embodiment, the GPGPU cores 3162 include SIMD logic capable ofperforming a single instruction on multiple sets of data. In oneembodiment GPGPU cores 3162 can physically execute SIMD4, SIMD8, andSIMD16 instructions and logically execute SIMD1, SIMD2, and SIMD32instructions. The SIMD instructions for the GPGPU cores can be generatedat compile time by a shader compiler or automatically generated whenexecuting programs written and compiled for single program multiple data(SPMD) or SIMT architectures. Multiple threads of a program configuredfor the SIMT execution model can executed via a single SIMD instruction.For example and in one embodiment, eight SIMT threads that perform thesame or similar operations can be executed in parallel via a singleSIMD8 logic unit.

The memory and cache interconnect 3168 is an interconnect network thatconnects each of the functional units of the graphics multiprocessor3134 to the register file 3158 and to the shared memory 3170. In oneembodiment, the memory and cache interconnect 3168 is a crossbarinterconnect that allows the load/store unit 3166 to implement load andstore operations between the shared memory 3170 and the register file3158. The register file 3158 can operate at the same frequency as theGPGPU cores 3162, thus data transfer between the GPGPU cores 3162 andthe register file 3158 is very low latency. The shared memory 3170 canbe used to enable communication between threads that execute on thefunctional units within the graphics multiprocessor 3134. The cachememory 3172 can be used as a data cache for example, to cache texturedata communicated between the functional units and the texture unit3136. The shared memory 3170 can also be used as a program managedcached. Threads executing on the GPGPU cores 3162 can programmaticallystore data within the shared memory in addition to the automaticallycached data that is stored within the cache memory 3172.

FIGS. 32A-32B illustrate additional graphics multiprocessors, accordingto embodiments. The illustrated graphics multiprocessors 3225, 3250 arevariants of the graphics multiprocessor 3134 of FIG. 31C. Theillustrated graphics multiprocessors 3225, 3250 can be configured as astreaming multiprocessor (SM) capable of simultaneous execution of alarge number of execution threads.

FIG. 32A shows a graphics multiprocessor 3225 according to an additionalembodiment. The graphics multiprocessor 3225 includes multipleadditional instances of execution resource units relative to thegraphics multiprocessor 3134 of FIG. 31D. For example, the graphicsmultiprocessor 3225 can include multiple instances of the instructionunit 3232A-3232B, register file 3234A-3234B, and texture unit(s)3244A-3244B. The graphics multiprocessor 3225 also includes multiplesets of graphics or compute execution units (e.g., GPGPU core3236A-3236B, GPGPU core 3237A-3237B, GPGPU core 3238A-3238B) andmultiple sets of load/store units 3240A-3240B. In one embodiment theexecution resource units have a common instruction cache 3230, textureand/or data cache memory 3242, and shared memory 3246.

The various components can communicate via an interconnect fabric 3227.In one embodiment the interconnect fabric 3227 includes one or morecrossbar switches to enable communication between the various componentsof the graphics multiprocessor 3225. In one embodiment the interconnectfabric 3227 is a separate, high-speed network fabric layer upon whicheach component of the graphics multiprocessor 3225 is stacked. Thecomponents of the graphics multiprocessor 3225 communicate with remotecomponents via the interconnect fabric 3227. For example, the GPGPUcores 3236A-3236B, 3237A-3237B, and 32378A-3238B can each communicatewith shared memory 3246 via the interconnect fabric 3227. Theinterconnect fabric 3227 can arbitrate communication within the graphicsmultiprocessor 3225 to ensure a fair bandwidth allocation betweencomponents.

FIG. 32B shows a graphics multiprocessor 3250 according to an additionalembodiment. The graphics processor includes multiple sets of executionresources 3256A-3256D, where each set of execution resource includesmultiple instruction units, register files, GPGPU cores, and load storeunits, as illustrated in FIG. 31D and FIG. 32A. The execution resources3256A-3256D can work in concert with texture unit(s) 3260A-3260D fortexture operations, while sharing an instruction cache 3254, and sharedmemory 3262. In one embodiment the execution resources 3256A-3256D canshare an instruction cache 3254 and shared memory 3262, as well asmultiple instances of a texture and/or data cache memory 3258A-3258B.The various components can communicate via an interconnect fabric 3252similar to the interconnect fabric 3227 of FIG. 32A.

Persons skilled in the art will understand that the architecturedescribed in FIGS. 30, 31A-31D, and 32A-32B are descriptive and notlimiting as to the scope of the present embodiments. Thus, thetechniques described herein may be implemented on any properlyconfigured processing unit, including, without limitation, one or moremobile application processors, one or more desktop or server centralprocessing units (CPUs) including multi-core CPUs, one or more parallelprocessing units, such as the parallel processing unit 3102 of FIG. 31 ,as well as one or more graphics processors or special purpose processingunits, without departure from the scope of the embodiments describedherein.

In some embodiments a parallel processor or GPGPU as described herein iscommunicatively coupled to host/processor cores to accelerate graphicsoperations, machine-learning operations, pattern analysis operations,and various general purpose GPU (GPGPU) functions. The GPU may becommunicatively coupled to the host processor/cores over a bus or otherinterconnect (e.g., a high speed interconnect such as PCIe or NVLink).In other embodiments, the GPU may be integrated on the same package orchip as the cores and communicatively coupled to the cores over aninternal processor bus/interconnect (i.e., internal to the package orchip). Regardless of the manner in which the GPU is connected, theprocessor cores may allocate work to the GPU in the form of sequences ofcommands/instructions contained in a work descriptor. The GPU then usesdedicated circuitry/logic for efficiently processing thesecommands/instructions.

Techniques for GPU to Host Processor Interconnection

FIG. 33A illustrates an exemplary architecture in which a plurality ofGPUs 3310-3313 are communicatively coupled to a plurality of multi-coreprocessors 3305-3306 over high-speed links 3340-3343 (e.g., buses,point-to-point interconnects, etc.). In one embodiment, the high-speedlinks 3340-3343 support a communication throughput of 4 GB/s, 30 GB/s,80 GB/s or higher, depending on the implementation. Various interconnectprotocols may be used including, but not limited to, PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 andNVLink 2.0. However, the underlying principles of the invention are notlimited to any particular communication protocol or throughput.

In addition, in one embodiment, two or more of the GPUs 3310-3313 areinterconnected over high-speed links 3344-3345, which may be implementedusing the same or different protocols/links than those used forhigh-speed links 3340-3343. Similarly, two or more of the multi-coreprocessors 3305-3306 may be connected over high speed link 3333 whichmay be symmetric multi-processor (SMP) buses operating at 20 GB/s, 30GB/s, 120 GB/s or higher. Alternatively, all communication between thevarious system components shown in FIG. 33A may be accomplished usingthe same protocols/links (e.g., over a common interconnection fabric).As mentioned, however, the underlying principles of the invention arenot limited to any particular type of interconnect technology.

In one embodiment, each multi-core processor 3305-3306 iscommunicatively coupled to a processor memory 3301-3302, via memoryinterconnects 3330-3331, respectively, and each GPU 3310-3313 iscommunicatively coupled to GPU memory 3320-3323 over GPU memoryinterconnects 3350-3353, respectively. The memory interconnects3330-3331 and 3350-3353 may utilize the same or different memory accesstechnologies. By way of example, and not limitation, the processormemories 3301-3302 and GPU memories 3320-3323 may be volatile memoriessuch as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) (including stackedDRAMs), Graphics DDR SDRAM (GDDR) (e.g., GDDR5, GDDR6), or HighBandwidth Memory (HBM) and/or may be non-volatile memories such as 3DXPoint or Nano-Ram. In one embodiment, some portion of the memories maybe volatile memory and another portion may be non-volatile memory (e.g.,using a two-level memory (2LM) hierarchy).

As described below, although the various processors 3305-3306 and GPUs3310-3313 may be physically coupled to a particular memory 3301-3302,3320-3323, respectively, a unified memory architecture may beimplemented in which the same virtual system address space (alsoreferred to as the “effective address” space) is distributed among allof the various physical memories. For example, processor memories3301-3302 may each comprise 64 GB of the system memory address space andGPU memories 3320-3323 may each comprise 32 GB of the system memoryaddress space (resulting in a total of 256 GB addressable memory in thisexample).

FIG. 33B illustrates additional details for an interconnection between amulti-core processor 3307 and a graphics acceleration module 3346 inaccordance with one embodiment. The graphics acceleration module 3346may include one or more GPU chips integrated on a line card which iscoupled to the processor 3307 via the high-speed link 3340.Alternatively, the graphics acceleration module 3346 may be integratedon the same package or chip as the processor 3307.

The illustrated processor 3307 includes a plurality of cores3360A-3360D, each with a translation lookaside buffer 3361A-3361D andone or more caches 3362A-3362D. The cores may include various othercomponents for executing instructions and processing data which are notillustrated to avoid obscuring the underlying principles of theinvention (e.g., instruction fetch units, branch prediction units,decoders, execution units, reorder buffers, etc.). The caches3362A-3362D may comprise level 1 (L1) and level 2 (L2) caches. Inaddition, one or more shared caches 3326 may be included in the cachinghierarchy and shared by sets of the cores 3360A-3360D. For example, oneembodiment of the processor 3307 includes 24 cores, each with its own L1cache, twelve shared L2 caches, and twelve shared L3 caches. In thisembodiment, one of the L2 and L3 caches are shared by two adjacentcores. The processor 3307 and the graphics accelerator integrationmodule 3346 connect with system memory 3341, which may include processormemories 3301-3302.

Coherency is maintained for data and instructions stored in the variouscaches 3362A-3362D, 3356 and system memory 3341 via inter-corecommunication over a coherence bus 3364. For example, each cache mayhave cache coherency logic/circuitry associated therewith to communicateto over the coherence bus 3364 in response to detected reads or writesto particular cache lines. In one implementation, a cache snoopingprotocol is implemented over the coherence bus 3364 to snoop cacheaccesses. Cache snooping/coherency techniques are well understood bythose of skill in the art and will not be described in detail here toavoid obscuring the underlying principles of the invention.

In one embodiment, a proxy circuit 3325 communicatively couples thegraphics acceleration module 3346 to the coherence bus 3364, allowingthe graphics acceleration module 3346 to participate in the cachecoherence protocol as a peer of the cores. In particular, an interface3335 provides connectivity to the proxy circuit 3325 over high-speedlink 3340 (e.g., a PCIe bus, NVLink, etc.) and an interface 3337connects the graphics acceleration module 3346 to the link 3340.

In one implementation, an accelerator integration circuit 3336 providescache management, memory access, context management, and interruptmanagement services on behalf of a plurality of graphics processingengines 3331, 3332, N of the graphics acceleration module 3346. Thegraphics processing engines 3331, 3332, N may each comprise a separategraphics processing unit (GPU). Alternatively, the graphics processingengines 3331, 3332, N may comprise different types of graphicsprocessing engines within a GPU such as graphics execution units, mediaprocessing engines (e.g., video encoders/decoders), samplers, and blitengines. In other words, the graphics acceleration module may be a GPUwith a plurality of graphics processing engines 3331-3332, N or thegraphics processing engines 3331-3332, N may be individual GPUsintegrated on a common package, line card, or chip.

In one embodiment, the accelerator integration circuit 3336 includes amemory management unit (MMU) 3339 for performing various memorymanagement functions such as virtual-to-physical memory translations(also referred to as effective-to-real memory translations) and memoryaccess protocols for accessing system memory 3341. The MMU 3339 may alsoinclude a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) (not shown) for caching thevirtual/effective to physical/real address translations. In oneimplementation, a cache 3338 stores commands and data for efficientaccess by the graphics processing engines 3331-3332, N. In oneembodiment, the data stored in cache 3338 and graphics memories3333-3334, N is kept coherent with the core caches 3362A-3362D, 3356 andsystem memory 3311. As mentioned, this may be accomplished via proxycircuit 3325 which takes part in the cache coherency mechanism on behalfof cache 3338 and memories 3333-3334, N (e.g., sending updates to thecache 3338 related to modifications/accesses of cache lines on processorcaches 3362A-3362D, 3356 and receiving updates from the cache 3338).

A set of registers 3349 store context data for threads executed by thegraphics processing engines 3331-3332, N and a context managementcircuit 3348 manages the thread contexts. For example, the contextmanagement circuit 3348 may perform save and restore operations to saveand restore contexts of the various threads during contexts switches(e.g., where a first thread is saved and a second thread is stored sothat the second thread can be execute by a graphics processing engine).For example, on a context switch, the context management circuit 3348may store current register values to a designated region in memory(e.g., identified by a context pointer). It may then restore theregister values when returning to the context. In one embodiment, aninterrupt management circuit 3347 receives and processes interruptsreceived from system devices.

In one implementation, virtual/effective addresses from a graphicsprocessing engine 3331 are translated to real/physical addresses insystem memory 3311 by the MMU 3339. One embodiment of the acceleratorintegration circuit 3336 supports multiple (e.g., 4, 8, 16) graphicsaccelerator modules 3346 and/or other accelerator devices. The graphicsaccelerator module 3346 may be dedicated to a single applicationexecuted on the processor 3307 or may be shared between multipleapplications. In one embodiment, a virtualized graphics executionenvironment is presented in which the resources of the graphicsprocessing engines 3331-3332, N are shared with multiple applications orvirtual machines (VMs). The resources may be subdivided into “slices”which are allocated to different VMs and/or applications based on theprocessing requirements and priorities associated with the VMs and/orapplications.

Thus, the accelerator integration circuit acts as a bridge to the systemfor the graphics acceleration module 3346 and provides addresstranslation and system memory cache services. In addition, theaccelerator integration circuit 3336 may provide virtualizationfacilities for the host processor to manage virtualization of thegraphics processing engines, interrupts, and memory management.

Because hardware resources of the graphics processing engines 3331-3332,N are mapped explicitly to the real address space seen by the hostprocessor 3307, any host processor can address these resources directlyusing an effective address value. One function of the acceleratorintegration circuit 3336, in one embodiment, is the physical separationof the graphics processing engines 3331-3332, N so that they appear tothe system as independent units.

As mentioned, in the illustrated embodiment, one or more graphicsmemories 3333-3334, M are coupled to each of the graphics processingengines 3331-3332, N, respectively. The graphics memories 3333-3334, Mstore instructions and data being processed by each of the graphicsprocessing engines 3331-3332, N. The graphics memories 3333-3334, M maybe volatile memories such as DRAMs (including stacked DRAMs), GDDRmemory (e.g., GDDR5, GDDR6), or HBM, and/or may be non-volatile memoriessuch as 3D XPoint or Nano-Ram.

In one embodiment, to reduce data traffic over link 3340, biasingtechniques are used to ensure that the data stored in graphics memories3333-3334, M is data which will be used most frequently by the graphicsprocessing engines 3331-3332, N and preferably not used by the cores3360A-3360D (at least not frequently). Similarly, the biasing mechanismattempts to keep data needed by the cores (and preferably not thegraphics processing engines 3331-3332, N) within the caches 3362A-3362D,3356 of the cores and system memory 3311.

FIG. 33C illustrates another embodiment in which the acceleratorintegration circuit 3336 is integrated within the processor 3307. Inthis embodiment, the graphics processing engines 3331-3332, Ncommunicate directly over the high-speed link 3340 to the acceleratorintegration circuit 3336 via interface 3337 and interface 3335 (which,again, may be utilize any form of bus or interface protocol). Theaccelerator integration circuit 3336 may perform the same operations asthose described with respect to FIG. 33B, but potentially at a higherthroughput given its close proximity to the coherency bus 3362 andcaches 3362A-3362D, 3326.

One embodiment supports different programming models including adedicated-process programming model (no graphics acceleration modulevirtualization) and shared programming models (with virtualization). Thelatter may include programming models which are controlled by theaccelerator integration circuit 3336 and programming models which arecontrolled by the graphics acceleration module 3346.

In one embodiment of the dedicated process model, graphics processingengines 3331-3332, N are dedicated to a single application or processunder a single operating system. The single application can funnel otherapplication requests to the graphics engines 3331-3332, N, providingvirtualization within a VM/partition.

In the dedicated-process programming models, the graphics processingengines 3331-3332, N, may be shared by multiple VM/applicationpartitions. The shared models require a system hypervisor to virtualizethe graphics processing engines 3331-3332, N to allow access by eachoperating system. For single-partition systems without a hypervisor, thegraphics processing engines 3331-3332, N are owned by the operatingsystem. In both cases, the operating system can virtualize the graphicsprocessing engines 3331-3332, N to provide access to each process orapplication.

For the shared programming model, the graphics acceleration module 3346or an individual graphics processing engine 3331-3332, N selects aprocess element using a process handle. In one embodiment, processelements are stored in system memory 3311 and are addressable using theeffective address to real address translation techniques describedherein. The process handle may be an implementation-specific valueprovided to the host process when registering its context with thegraphics processing engine 3331-3332, N (that is, calling systemsoftware to add the process element to the process element linked list).The lower 16-bits of the process handle may be the offset of the processelement within the process element linked list.

FIG. 33D illustrates an exemplary accelerator integration slice 3390. Asused herein, a “slice” comprises a specified portion of the processingresources of the accelerator integration circuit 3336. Applicationeffective address space 3382 within system memory 3311 stores processelements 3383. In one embodiment, the process elements 3383 are storedin response to GPU invocations 3381 from applications 3380 executed onthe processor 3307. A process element 3383 contains the process statefor the corresponding application 3380. A work descriptor (WD) 3384contained in the process element 3383 can be a single job requested byan application or may contain a pointer to a queue of jobs. In thelatter case, the WD 3384 is a pointer to the job request queue in theapplication's address space 3382.

The graphics acceleration module 3346 and/or the individual graphicsprocessing engines 3331-3332, N can be shared by all or a subset of theprocesses in the system. Embodiments of the invention include aninfrastructure for setting up the process state and sending a WD 3384 toa graphics acceleration module 3346 to start a job in a virtualizedenvironment.

In one implementation, the dedicated-process programming model isimplementation-specific. In this model, a single process owns thegraphics acceleration module 3346 or an individual graphics processingengine 3331. Because the graphics acceleration module 3346 is owned by asingle process, the hypervisor initializes the accelerator integrationcircuit 3336 for the owning partition and the operating systeminitializes the accelerator integration circuit 3336 for the owningprocess at the time when the graphics acceleration module 3346 isassigned.

In operation, a WD fetch unit 3391 in the accelerator integration slice3390 fetches the next WD 3384 which includes an indication of the workto be done by one of the graphics processing engines of the graphicsacceleration module 3346. Data from the WD 3384 may be stored inregisters 3349 and used by the MMU 3339, interrupt management circuit3347 and/or context management circuit 3346 as illustrated. For example,one embodiment of the MMU 3339 includes segment/page walk circuitry foraccessing segment/page tables 3386 within the OS virtual address space3385. The interrupt management circuit 3347 may process interrupt events3392 received from the graphics acceleration module 3346. Whenperforming graphics operations, an effective address 3393 generated by agraphics processing engine 3331-3332, N is translated to a real addressby the MMU 3339.

In one embodiment, the same set of registers 3349 are duplicated foreach graphics processing engine 3331-3332, N and/or graphicsacceleration module 3346 and may be initialized by the hypervisor oroperating system. Each of these duplicated registers may be included inan accelerator integration slice 3390. Exemplary registers that may beinitialized by the hypervisor are shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Hypervisor Initialized Registers 1 Slice Control Register 2 RealAddress (RA) Scheduled Processes Area Pointer 3 Authority Mask OverrideRegister 4 Interrupt Vector Table Entry Offset 5 Interrupt Vector TableEntry Limit 6 State Register 7 Logical Partition ID 8 Real address (RA)Hypervisor Accelerator Utilization Record Pointer 9 Storage DescriptionRegister

Exemplary registers that may be initialized by the operating system areshown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Operating System Initialized Registers 1 Process and ThreadIdentification 2 Effective Address (EA) Context Save/Restore Pointer 3Virtual Address (VA) Accelerator Utilization Record Pointer 4 VirtualAddress (VA) Storage Segment Table Pointer 5 Authority Mask 6 Workdescriptor

In one embodiment, each WD 3384 is specific to a particular graphicsacceleration module 3346 and/or graphics processing engine 3331-3332, N.It contains all the information a graphics processing engine 3331-3332,N requires to do its work or it can be a pointer to a memory locationwhere the application has set up a command queue of work to becompleted.

FIG. 33E illustrates additional details for one embodiment of a sharedmodel. This embodiment includes a hypervisor real address space 3398 inwhich a process element list 3399 is stored. The hypervisor real addressspace 3398 is accessible via a hypervisor 3396 which virtualizes thegraphics acceleration module engines for the operating system 3395.

The shared programming models allow for all or a subset of processesfrom all or a subset of partitions in the system to use a graphicsacceleration module 3346. There are two programming models where thegraphics acceleration module 3346 is shared by multiple processes andpartitions: time-sliced shared and graphics directed shared.

In this model, the system hypervisor 3396 owns the graphics accelerationmodule 3346 and makes its function available to all operating systems3395. For a graphics acceleration module 3346 to support virtualizationby the system hypervisor 3396, the graphics acceleration module 3346 mayadhere to the following requirements: 1) An application's job requestmust be autonomous (that is, the state does not need to be maintainedbetween jobs), or the graphics acceleration module 3346 must provide acontext save and restore mechanism. 2) An application's job request isguaranteed by the graphics acceleration module 3346 to complete in aspecified amount of time, including any translation faults, or thegraphics acceleration module 3346 provides the ability to preempt theprocessing of the job. 3) The graphics acceleration module 3346 must beguaranteed fairness between processes when operating in the directedshared programming model.

In one embodiment, for the shared model, the application 3380 isrequired to make an operating system 3395 system call with a graphicsacceleration module 3346 type, a work descriptor (WD), an authority maskregister (AMR) value, and a context save/restore area pointer (CSRP).The graphics acceleration module 3346 type describes the targetedacceleration function for the system call. The graphics accelerationmodule 3346 type may be a system-specific value. The WD is formattedspecifically for the graphics acceleration module 3346 and can be in theform of a graphics acceleration module 3346 command, an effectiveaddress pointer to a user-defined structure, an effective addresspointer to a queue of commands, or any other data structure to describethe work to be done by the graphics acceleration module 3346. In oneembodiment, the AMR value is the AMR state to use for the currentprocess. The value passed to the operating system is similar to anapplication setting the AMR. If the accelerator integration circuit 3336and graphics acceleration module 3346 implementations do not support aUser Authority Mask Override Register (UAMOR), the operating system mayapply the current UAMOR value to the AMR value before passing the AMR inthe hypervisor call. The hypervisor 3396 may optionally apply thecurrent Authority Mask Override Register (AMOR) value before placing theAMR into the process element 3383. In one embodiment, the CSRP is one ofthe registers 3349 containing the effective address of an area in theapplication's address space 3382 for the graphics acceleration module3346 to save and restore the context state. This pointer is optional ifno state is required to be saved between jobs or when a job ispreempted. The context save/restore area may be pinned system memory.

Upon receiving the system call, the operating system 3395 may verifythat the application 3380 has registered and been given the authority touse the graphics acceleration module 3346. The operating system 3395then calls the hypervisor 3396 with the information shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 OS to Hypervisor Call Parameters 1 A work descriptor (WD) 2 AnAuthority Mask Register (AMR) value (potentially masked). 3 An effectiveaddress (EA) Context Save/Restore Area Pointer (CSRP) 4 A process ID(PID) and optional thread ID (TID) 5 A virtual address (VA) acceleratorutilization record pointer (AURP) 6 The virtual address of the storagesegment table pointer (SSTP) 7 A logical interrupt service number (LISN)

Upon receiving the hypervisor call, the hypervisor 3396 verifies thatthe operating system 3395 has registered and been given the authority touse the graphics acceleration module 3346. The hypervisor 3396 then putsthe process element 3383 into the process element linked list for thecorresponding graphics acceleration module 3346 type. The processelement may include the information shown in Table 4.

TABLE 4 Process Element Information 1 A work descriptor (WD) 2 AnAuthority Mask Register (AMR) value (potentially masked). 3 An effectiveaddress (EA) Context Save/Restore Area Pointer (CSRP) 4 A process ID(PID) and optional thread ID (TID) 5 A virtual address (VA) acceleratorutilization record pointer (AURP) 6 The virtual address of the storagesegment table pointer (SSTP) 7 A logical interrupt service number (LISN)8 Interrupt vector table, derived from the hypervisor call parameters. 9A state register (SR) value 10 A logical partition ID (LPID) 11 A realaddress (RA) hypervisor accelerator utilization record pointer 12 TheStorage Descriptor Register (SDR)

In one embodiment, the hypervisor initializes a plurality of acceleratorintegration slice 3390 registers 3349.

As illustrated in FIG. 33F, one embodiment of the invention employs aunified memory addressable via a common virtual memory address spaceused to access the physical processor memories 3301-3302 and GPUmemories 3320-3323. In this implementation, operations executed on theGPUs 3310-3313 utilize the same virtual/effective memory address spaceto access the processors memories 3301-3302 and vice versa, therebysimplifying programmability. In one embodiment, a first portion of thevirtual/effective address space is allocated to the processor memory3301, a second portion to the second processor memory 3302, a thirdportion to the GPU memory 3320, and so on. The entire virtual/effectivememory space (sometimes referred to as the effective address space) isthereby distributed across each of the processor memories 3301-3302 andGPU memories 3320-3323, allowing any processor or GPU to access anyphysical memory with a virtual address mapped to that memory.

In one embodiment, bias/coherence management circuitry 3394A-3394Ewithin one or more of the MMUs 3339A-3339E ensures cache coherencebetween the caches of the host processors (e.g., 3305) and the GPUs3310-3313 and implements biasing techniques indicating the physicalmemories in which certain types of data should be stored. While multipleinstances of bias/coherence management circuitry 3394A-3394E areillustrated in FIG. 33F, the bias/coherence circuitry may be implementedwithin the MMU of one or more host processors 3305 and/or within theaccelerator integration circuit 3336.

One embodiment allows GPU-attached memory 3320-3323 to be mapped as partof system memory, and accessed using shared virtual memory (SVM)technology, but without suffering the typical performance drawbacksassociated with full system cache coherence. The ability to GPU-attachedmemory 3320-3323 to be accessed as system memory without onerous cachecoherence overhead provides a beneficial operating environment for GPUoffload. This arrangement allows the host processor 3305 software tosetup operands and access computation results, without the overhead oftradition I/O DMA data copies. Such traditional copies involve drivercalls, interrupts and memory mapped I/O (MMIO) accesses that are allinefficient relative to simple memory accesses. At the same time, theability to access GPU attached memory 3320-3323 without cache coherenceoverheads can be critical to the execution time of an offloadedcomputation. In cases with substantial streaming write memory traffic,for example, cache coherence overhead can significantly reduce theeffective write bandwidth seen by a GPU 3310-3313. The efficiency ofoperand setup, the efficiency of results access, and the efficiency ofGPU computation all play a role in determining the effectiveness of GPUoffload.

In one implementation, the selection of between GPU bias and hostprocessor bias is driven by a bias tracker data structure. A bias tablemay be used, for example, which may be a page-granular structure (i.e.,controlled at the granularity of a memory page) that includes 1 or 2bits per GPU-attached memory page. The bias table may be implemented ina stolen memory range of one or more GPU-attached memories 3320-3323,with or without a bias cache in the GPU 3310-3313 (e.g., to cachefrequently/recently used entries of the bias table). Alternatively, theentire bias table may be maintained within the GPU.

In one implementation, the bias table entry associated with each accessto the GPU-attached memory 3320-3323 is accessed prior the actual accessto the GPU memory, causing the following operations. First, localrequests from the GPU 3310-3313 that find their page in GPU bias areforwarded directly to a corresponding GPU memory 3320-3323. Localrequests from the GPU that find their page in host bias are forwarded tothe processor 3305 (e.g., over a high-speed link as discussed above). Inone embodiment, requests from the processor 3305 that find the requestedpage in host processor bias complete the request like a normal memoryread. Alternatively, requests directed to a GPU-biased page may beforwarded to the GPU 3310-3313. The GPU may then transition the page toa host processor bias if it is not currently using the page.

The bias state of a page can be changed either by a software-basedmechanism, a hardware-assisted software-based mechanism, or, for alimited set of cases, a purely hardware-based mechanism.

One mechanism for changing the bias state employs an API call (e.g.OpenCL), which, in turn, calls the GPU's device driver which, in turn,sends a message (or enqueues a command descriptor) to the GPU directingit to change the bias state and, for some transitions, perform a cacheflushing operation in the host. The cache flushing operation is requiredfor a transition from host processor 3305 bias to GPU bias, but is notrequired for the opposite transition.

In one embodiment, cache coherency is maintained by temporarilyrendering GPU-biased pages uncacheable by the host processor 3305. Toaccess these pages, the processor 3305 may request access from the GPU3310 which may or may not grant access right away, depending on theimplementation. Thus, to reduce communication between the processor 3305and GPU 3310 it is beneficial to ensure that GPU-biased pages are thosewhich are required by the GPU but not the host processor 3305 and viceversa.

FIG. 33G illustrates a multi-GPU computing system, according to anembodiment. The multi-GPU computing system can include a processor 3303coupled to multiple GPUs 3314A-3314D via a host interface switch 3304.The host interface switch 3304, in one embodiment, is a PCI expressswitch device that couples the processor 3303 to a PCI express bus overwhich the processor 3303 can communicate with the set of GPUs3314A-3314D. The GPUs 3314A-3314D can interconnect via a set ofhigh-speed point to point GPU to GPU links 3316. The high-speed GPU toGPU links can connect to each of the GPUs 3314A-3314D via a dedicatedGPU link, such as the GPU link DPLAB10 as in FIG. DPLAB. The P2P GPUlinks 3316 enable direct communication between each of the GPUs3314A-3314D without requiring communication over the host interface busto which the processor 3303 is connected. With GPU-to-GPU trafficdirected to the P2P GPU links, the host interface bus remains availablefor system memory access or to communicate with other instances of themulti-GPU computing system 3300, for example, via one or more networkdevices. While in the illustrated embodiment the GPUs 3314A-3314Dconnect to the processor 3303 via the host interface switch 3304, in oneembodiment the processor 3303 includes direct support for the P2P GPUlinks 3316 and can connect directly to the GPUs 3314A-3314D.

Graphics Processing Pipeline

FIG. 34 illustrates a graphics processing pipeline 3400, according to anembodiment. In one embodiment, a graphics processor can implement theillustrated graphics processing pipeline 3400. The graphics processorcan be included within the parallel processing subsystems as describedherein, such as the parallel processor 3100 of FIG. 31 , which, in oneembodiment, is a variant of the parallel processor(s) 3012 of FIG. 30 .The various parallel processing systems can implement the graphicsprocessing pipeline 3400 via one or more instances of the parallelprocessing unit (e.g., parallel processing unit 3102 of FIG. 31 ) asdescribed herein. For example, a shader unit (e.g., graphicsmultiprocessor 3134 of FIG. 31 ) may be configured to perform thefunctions of one or more of a vertex processing unit 3404, atessellation control processing unit 3408, a tessellation evaluationprocessing unit 3412, a geometry processing unit 3416, and afragment/pixel processing unit 3424. The functions of data assembler3402, primitive assemblers 3406, 3414, 3418, tessellation unit 3410,rasterizer 3422, and raster operations unit 3426 may also be performedby other processing engines within a processing cluster (e.g.,processing cluster 3114 of FIG. 3 ) and a corresponding partition unit(e.g., partition unit 3120A-3120N of FIG. 31 ). The graphics processingpipeline 3400 may also be implemented using dedicated processing unitsfor one or more functions. In one embodiment, one or more portions ofthe graphics processing pipeline 3400 can be performed by parallelprocessing logic within a general-purpose processor (e.g., CPU). In oneembodiment, one or more portions of the graphics processing pipeline3400 can access on-chip memory (e.g., parallel processor memory 3122 asin FIG. 31 ) via a memory interface 3428, which may be an instance ofthe memory interface 3118 of FIG. 31 .

In one embodiment, the data assembler 3402 is a processing unit thatcollects vertex data for surfaces and primitives. The data assembler3402 then outputs the vertex data, including the vertex attributes, tothe vertex processing unit 3404. The vertex processing unit 3404 is aprogrammable execution unit that executes vertex shader programs,lighting and transforming vertex data as specified by the vertex shaderprograms. The vertex processing unit 3404 reads data that is stored incache, local or system memory for use in processing the vertex data andmay be programmed to transform the vertex data from an object-basedcoordinate representation to a world space coordinate space or anormalized device coordinate space.

A first instance of a primitive assembler 3406 receives vertexattributes from the vertex processing unit 3404. The primitive assembler3406 readings stored vertex attributes as needed and constructs graphicsprimitives for processing by tessellation control processing unit 3408.The graphics primitives include triangles, line segments, points,patches, and so forth, as supported by various graphics processingapplication programming interfaces (APIs).

The tessellation control processing unit 3408 treats the input verticesas control points for a geometric patch. The control points aretransformed from an input representation from the patch (e.g., thepatch's bases) to a representation that is suitable for use in surfaceevaluation by the tessellation evaluation processing unit 3412. Thetessellation control processing unit 3408 can also compute tessellationfactors for edges of geometric patches. A tessellation factor applies toa single edge and quantifies a view-dependent level of detail associatedwith the edge. A tessellation unit 3410 is configured to receive thetessellation factors for edges of a patch and to tessellate the patchinto multiple geometric primitives such as line, triangle, orquadrilateral primitives, which are transmitted to a tessellationevaluation processing unit 3412. The tessellation evaluation processingunit 3412 operates on parameterized coordinates of the subdivided patchto generate a surface representation and vertex attributes for eachvertex associated with the geometric primitives.

A second instance of a primitive assembler 3414 receives vertexattributes from the tessellation evaluation processing unit 3412,reading stored vertex attributes as needed, and constructs graphicsprimitives for processing by the geometry processing unit 3416. Thegeometry processing unit 3416 is a programmable execution unit thatexecutes geometry shader programs to transform graphics primitivesreceived from primitive assembler 3414 as specified by the geometryshader programs. In one embodiment the geometry processing unit 3416 isprogrammed to subdivide the graphics primitives into one or more newgraphics primitives and calculate parameters used to rasterize the newgraphics primitives.

In some embodiments the geometry processing unit 3416 can add or deleteelements in the geometry stream. The geometry processing unit 3416outputs the parameters and vertices specifying new graphics primitivesto primitive assembler 3418. The primitive assembler 3418 receives theparameters and vertices from the geometry processing unit 3416 andconstructs graphics primitives for processing by a viewport scale, cull,and clip unit 3420. The geometry processing unit 3416 reads data that isstored in parallel processor memory or system memory for use inprocessing the geometry data. The viewport scale, cull, and clip unit3420 performs clipping, culling, and viewport scaling and outputsprocessed graphics primitives to a rasterizer 3422.

The rasterizer 3422 can perform depth culling and other depth-basedoptimizations. The rasterizer 3422 also performs scan conversion on thenew graphics primitives to generate fragments and output those fragmentsand associated coverage data to the fragment/pixel processing unit 3424.The fragment/pixel processing unit 3424 is a programmable execution unitthat is configured to execute fragment shader programs or pixel shaderprograms. The fragment/pixel processing unit 3424 transforming fragmentsor pixels received from rasterizer 3422, as specified by the fragment orpixel shader programs. For example, the fragment/pixel processing unit3424 may be programmed to perform operations included but not limited totexture mapping, shading, blending, texture correction and perspectivecorrection to produce shaded fragments or pixels that are output to araster operations unit 3426. The fragment/pixel processing unit 3424 canread data that is stored in either the parallel processor memory or thesystem memory for use when processing the fragment data. Fragment orpixel shader programs may be configured to shade at sample, pixel, tile,or other granularities depending on the sampling rate configured for theprocessing units.

The raster operations unit 3426 is a processing unit that performsraster operations including, but not limited to stencil, z test,blending, and the like, and outputs pixel data as processed graphicsdata to be stored in graphics memory (e.g., parallel processor memory3122 as in FIG. 31 , and/or system memory 3004 as in FIG. 30 , to bedisplayed on the one or more display device(s) 3010 or for furtherprocessing by one of the one or more processor(s) 3002 or parallelprocessor(s) 3012. In some embodiments the raster operations unit 3426is configured to compress z or color data that is written to memory anddecompress z or color data that is read from memory.

The foregoing description and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. Persons skilled in the artwill understand that various modifications and changes may be made tothe embodiments described herein without departing from the broaderspirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

In some embodiments, an apparatus for compression of untyped dataincludes a graphical processing unit (GPU) including a data compressionpipeline, the data compression pipeline including a data port coupledwith one or more shader cores, wherein the data port is to allowtransfer of untyped data without format conversion, and a 3Dcompression/decompression unit to provide for compression of untypeddata to be stored to a memory subsystem and decompression of untypeddata from the memory subsystem.

In some embodiments, the apparatus is to utilize fixed sequential blocksfor storage of the untyped data.

In some embodiments, the apparatus is to convert a buffer for theuntyped data to a stateful buffer, the stateful buffer to identifyuntyped data for compression.

In some embodiments, memory allocation of the untyped data is to bedetermined by software, and wherein a GPU driver is to determine whetherthe untyped data is to be compressed.

In some embodiments, the apparatus is to pass one or more hintsregarding data compression of the untyped data to the GPU driver.

In some embodiments, the one or more hints include one or more ofwhether compression should be enabled for a buffer and a native datasize that maps to the buffer.

In some embodiments, the GPU driver is to allocate an auxiliary bufferto store compression metadata.

In some embodiments, the data compression pipeline further includes asurface state cache to hold a surface state.

In some embodiments, the apparatus is to provide decompression ofcompressed untyped data without copying the data.

In some embodiments, the apparatus is to change a description or pointerto a buffer for the untyped data from a compressed designation to anuncompressed designation.

In some embodiments, the untyped data is machine learning or deeplearning data.

In some embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumhaving stored thereon data representing sequences of instructions that,when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or moreprocessors to perform operations comprising receiving untyped data forprocessing by a graphical processing unit (GPU) including a datacompression pipeline; determining by a GPU driver to compress theuntyped data; and performing compression of untyped data by the datacompression pipeline, wherein the data compression pipeline includes a3D compression/decompression unit to provide for compression of untypeddata to be stored to a memory subsystem and decompression of untypeddata from the memory subsystem.

In some embodiments, the medium further includes instructions forreceiving a request to read untyped data from system memory; reading ablock of data from a memory surface via a first surface state to one ormore memory arrays; and writing back the block of data as uncompresseddata to the memory surface via a second surface state.

In some embodiments, the medium further includes instructions forpreventing any thread other than a current thread from accessing theblock of data until processing is completed.

In some embodiments, the medium further includes instructions for, uponthe entire memory surface being written, writing to the memory surfaceto indicate the memory surface is not compressed.

In some embodiments, the medium further includes instructions forconverting a buffer for the untyped data to a stateful buffer, thestateful buffer to identify untyped data for compression.

In some embodiments, the medium further includes instructions forpassing one or more hints regarding data compression of the untyped datato the GPU driver.

In some embodiments, the medium further includes instructions forallocating an auxiliary buffer to store compression metadata for thecompression of the untyped.

In some embodiments, an apparatus includes means for receiving untypeddata for processing by a graphical processing unit (GPU) including adata compression pipeline; means for determining by a GPU driver tocompress the untyped data; and means for performing compression ofuntyped data by the data compression pipeline, wherein the datacompression pipeline includes a 3D compression/decompression unit toprovide for compression of untyped data to be stored to a memorysubsystem and decompression of untyped data from the memory subsystem.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further includes means for receivinga request to read untyped data from system memory; means for reading ablock of data via a first surface state to one or more memory arrays;and means for writing back the block of data as uncompressed data to thememory surface via a second surface state.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further includes means for preventingany thread other than a current thread from accessing the block of datauntil processing is completed.

In some embodiments, t the apparatus further includes means for writingto the memory surface to indicate the memory surface is not compressedupon the entire memory surface being written.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further includes means for convertinga buffer for the untyped data to a stateful buffer, the stateful bufferto identify untyped data for compression.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further includes means for passingone or more hints regarding data compression of the untyped data to theGPU driver.

In some embodiments, the apparatus further includes means for allocatingan auxiliary buffer to store compression metadata for the compression ofthe untyped.

In some embodiments, a method includes receiving untyped data forprocessing by a graphical processing unit (GPU) including a datacompression pipeline; determining by a GPU driver to compress theuntyped data; and performing compression of untyped data by the datacompression pipeline, wherein the data compression pipeline includes a3D compression/decompression unit to provide for compression of untypeddata to be stored to a memory subsystem and decompression of untypeddata from the memory subsystem.

In some embodiments, the method further includes receiving a request toread untyped data from system memory; reading a block of data via afirst surface state to one or more memory arrays; and writing back theblock of data as uncompressed data to the memory surface via a secondsurface state.

In some embodiments, the method further includes preventing any threadother than a current thread from accessing the block of data untilprocessing is completed.

In some embodiments, the method further includes, upon the entire memorysurface being written, writing to the memory surface to indicate thememory surface is not compressed.

In some embodiments, the method further includes converting a buffer forthe untyped data to a stateful buffer, the stateful buffer to identifyuntyped data for compression.

In some embodiments, the method further includes passing one or morehints regarding data compression of the untyped data to the GPU driver.

In some embodiments, the method further includes allocating an auxiliarybuffer to store compression metadata for the compression of the untyped.

In some embodiments, a processing system includes a central processingunit (CPU); a system memory; and a graphical processing unit (GPU) agraphical processing unit (GPU) including a data compression pipeline,the data compression pipeline including a data port coupled with one ormore shader cores, wherein the data port is to allow transfer of untypeddata without format conversion, and a 3D compression/decompression unitto provide for compression of untyped data to be stored to a memorysubsystem and decompression of untyped data from the memory subsystem.

In some embodiments, the system is to utilize fixed sequential blocksfor storage of the untyped data.

In some embodiments, the system is to convert a buffer for the untypeddata to a stateful buffer, the stateful buffer to identify untyped datafor compression.

In some embodiments, the data compression pipeline further includes asurface state cache to hold a surface state.

In some embodiments, the system is to provide decompression ofcompressed untyped data without copying the data.

In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the described embodiments. It will be apparent,however, to one skilled in the art that embodiments may be practicedwithout some of these specific details. In other instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form. There may beintermediate structure between illustrated components. The componentsdescribed or illustrated herein may have additional inputs or outputsthat are not illustrated or described.

Various embodiments may include various processes. These processes maybe performed by hardware components or may be embodied in computerprogram or machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause ageneral-purpose or special-purpose processor or logic circuitsprogrammed with the instructions to perform the processes.Alternatively, the processes may be performed by a combination ofhardware and software.

The terms “logic”, “module”, “component”, “engine”, “mechanism”, “tool”,“circuit”, and “circuitry” are referenced interchangeably throughoutthis document and may include, by way of example, software, hardware,firmware, or any combination thereof.

Portions of various embodiments may be provided as a computer programproduct, which may include a computer-readable medium having storedthereon computer program instructions, which may be used to program acomputer (or other electronic devices) for execution by one or moreprocessors to perform a process according to certain embodiments. Thecomputer-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, magneticdisks, optical disks, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory(RAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically-erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magneticor optical cards, flash memory, or other type of computer-readablemedium suitable for storing electronic instructions. Moreover,embodiments may also be downloaded as a computer program product,wherein the program may be transferred from a remote computer to arequesting computer. In some embodiments, a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium has stored thereon data representingsequences of instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause theprocessor to perform certain operations.

Many of the methods are described in their most basic form, butprocesses can be added to or deleted from any of the methods andinformation can be added or subtracted from any of the describedmessages without departing from the basic scope of the presentembodiments. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that manyfurther modifications and adaptations can be made. The particularembodiments are not provided to limit the concept but to illustrate it.The scope of the embodiments is not to be determined by the specificexamples provided above but only by the claims below.

If it is said that an element “A” is coupled to or with element “B,”element A may be directly coupled to element B or be indirectly coupledthrough, for example, element C. When the specification or claims statethat a component, feature, structure, process, or characteristic A“causes” a component, feature, structure, process, or characteristic B,it means that “A” is at least a partial cause of “B” but that there mayalso be at least one other component, feature, structure, process, orcharacteristic that assists in causing “B.” If the specificationindicates that a component, feature, structure, process, orcharacteristic “may”, “might”, or “could” be included, that particularcomponent, feature, structure, process, or characteristic is notrequired to be included. If the specification or claim refers to “a” or“an” element, this does not mean there is only one of the describedelements.

An embodiment is an implementation or example. Reference in thespecification to “an embodiment,” “one embodiment,” “some embodiments,”or “other embodiments” means that a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic described in connection with the embodiments is includedin at least some embodiments, but not necessarily all embodiments. Thevarious appearances of “an embodiment,” “one embodiment,” or “someembodiments” are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiments.It should be appreciated that in the foregoing description of exemplaryembodiments, various features are sometimes grouped together in a singleembodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose ofstreamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of one ormore of the various novel aspects. This method of disclosure, however,is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimedembodiments requires more features than are expressly recited in eachclaim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, novel aspects lie inless than all features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus,the claims are hereby expressly incorporated into this description, witheach claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. An autonomous system comprising: one or moreprocessors including a graphical processing unit (GPU); a memory tostore data for processing; and a transmitter and receiver forcommunications, including communications via a network to obtain one ormore services for operation of the autonomous system, the autonomoussystem including a plurality of containers, each container including oneor more applications; wherein the autonomous system is to provide aplurality of resources in operation, the one or more processors to applya resource constraint policy for the autonomous system including:identifying one or more of network bandwidth or compute capabilityconstraints for the autonomous system, and dynamically adjustingoperations of the autonomous system in response to the identifiednetwork bandwidth or compute capability constraints, including reducinglower priority resource operations of the autonomous system to maintainnetwork bandwidth or compute capability for higher priority resourcesource operations of the autonomous system; and wherein dynamicallyadjusting operations of the autonomous system includes utilizing theplurality of containers to adjust compression of data for communicationsover the network based at least in part on prioritization of theresources of the autonomous system.
 2. The autonomous system of claim 1,wherein adjusting compression of data for communications over thenetwork includes applying differing compression to the containers of theplurality of containers based at least in part on prioritization ofapplication workloads.
 3. The autonomous system of claim 1, theautonomous system to utilize crowd sourcing across one or moreadditional autonomous systems to assist in analytics for dynamicallyadjusting operations of the autonomous system.
 4. The autonomous systemof claim 1, the one or more services for operation of the autonomoussystem including receipt of training data for machine learning via thenetwork.
 5. The autonomous system of claim 1, wherein applying theresource constraint policy further includes dynamically scaling ofhardware of the autonomous system based at least in part on theidentified network bandwidth or compute capability constraints.
 6. Theautonomous system of claim 5, wherein dynamic scaling of the hardwareincludes dynamic scaling of one or more of the GPU or a reprogrammableunit to provide needed processing.
 7. The autonomous system of claim 1,the autonomous system including an autonomous vehicle.
 8. The autonomoussystem of claim 7, wherein the resources include vehicle navigation,safety, and entertainment services.
 9. The autonomous system of claim 2,wherein applying differing compression to the containers of theplurality of containers includes applying a higher level of compressionto a first container for lower priority applications than to a secondcontainer for higher priority applications to reduce data traffic forlower priority transmissions.
 10. The autonomous system of claim 1,wherein adjusting compression of data for communications over thenetwork includes applying a lossy compression for a particular containerto enable transmission of bursts of data when there is sufficientbandwidth for transmission or reception of data.
 11. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium having stored thereon data representingsequences of instructions that, when executed by one or more processors,cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:receiving communications at an autonomous system via a network to obtainone or more services for operation of the autonomous system, theautonomous system including a plurality of containers, each containerincluding one or more applications; providing a plurality of resourcesin operation of the autonomous system; identifying one or more ofnetwork bandwidth or compute capability constraints for the autonomoussystem; and dynamically adjusting operations of the autonomous system inresponse to the identified network bandwidth or compute capabilityconstraints, including reducing lower priority resource operations ofthe autonomous system to maintain network bandwidth or computecapability for higher priority resource source operations of theautonomous system; wherein dynamically adjusting operations of theautonomous system includes utilizing the plurality of containers toadjust compression of data for communications over the network based atleast in part on prioritization of the resources of the autonomoussystem.
 12. The storage medium of claim 11, wherein: adjustingcompression of data for communications over the network includesapplying differing compression to the containers of the plurality ofcontainers based at least in part on prioritization of applicationworkloads.
 13. The storage medium of claim 11, wherein the one or moreservices for operation of the autonomous system include receipt oftraining data for machine learning via the network.
 14. The storagemedium of claim 11, wherein the resources include navigation, safety,and entertainment services.
 15. A method comprising: receivingcommunications at an autonomous vehicle via a network to obtain one ormore services for operation of the autonomous vehicle, the network beingan unreliable network, the one or more services including provision oftraining data for the autonomous vehicle, the autonomous vehicleincluding a plurality of containers, each container including one ormore applications; providing a plurality of resources in operation ofthe autonomous vehicle, the resources including navigation, safety, andentertainment services for the autonomous vehicle; identifying one ormore of network bandwidth or compute capability constraints for theautonomous vehicle; and dynamically adjusting operations of theautonomous vehicle in response to the identified network bandwidth orcompute capability constraints, including reducing lower priorityresource operations of the autonomous vehicle to maintain networkbandwidth or compute capability for higher priority resource sourceoperations of the autonomous vehicle; wherein dynamically adjustingoperations of the autonomous vehicle includes utilizing the plurality ofcontainers to adjust compression of data for communications over thenetwork based at least in part on prioritization of the resources of theautonomous vehicle.
 16. The method of claim 15, the one or more servicesfor operation of the autonomous vehicle including receipt of trainingdata for machine learning via the network.
 17. The method of claim 15,the autonomous vehicle is to utilize crowd sources across one or moreadditional autonomous vehicles to assist in dynamically adjustingoperations of the autonomous vehicle.
 18. The method of claim 15,wherein the one or more services are received by the autonomous vehiclefrom one or more of a dedicated data center or a cloud connected server.19. The method of claim 18, wherein the one or more services are furtherreceived by the autonomous vehicle from an emergency supporting networkin an emergency or detour condition for the autonomous vehicle.
 20. Themethod of claim 15, wherein adjusting compression of data forcommunications over the network includes applying differing compressionto the containers of the plurality of containers based at least in parton prioritization of application workloads.